Nvidia, Epic Announce 3D Added to Unreal Engine

By Marcus Yam
published

Unreal Engine 3 gets more 3d-ness added to its already existing 3D-osity.

Epic Games today announced at GDC that it has added 3D support to Unreal Engine 3. Yes, it's true that the Unreal Engine is already one that fully account for the third dimension, but the addition that we're talking about today is 3D display with Nvidia's 3D Vision technology.

Today’s announcement means that licensees of Unreal Engine 3 will be able to take full advantage of integrated 3D Vision technology support. Users of the Unreal Development Kit (UDK), a free version of Unreal Engine 3, will also benefit from the addition of 3D Vision support.

Mark Rein, vice president at Epic Games, appeared to be the most excited about this at the time of announcement. "The combination of Unreal Engine 3 and 3D Vision makes already amazing games even more jaw dropping," he said. "If you haven’t seen Unreal Engine 3 in 3D, you won’t believe how realistic it is! We’re excited to offer this technology for free to our licensees and can’t wait to see what people create with it."

Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
26 Comments Comment from the forums
  • weedface
    I've never played anything in 3D. but this card is gonna be so overpriced (i hope not) that i may not get it and go with a 5870
    Reply
  • liquidsnake718
    The real question is, how will this effect your eyes in the long run and of course its "realistic" its 3d! i can imagine the crytech engine2 or even the new one crytech engine 3 in 3d! THAT must be a literal blast to play! Crysis 2 will have 3d so I truly cant wait for this. i only wish drivers were optimized to work 3d on CURRENT LCD tv's with at least 100hz instead of having to purchase an actualt 3d certified LCD/O-LED
    Reply
  • captaincharisma
    i hate this 3D crap. did i just go back in time to the 1970's or what?
    Reply
  • nfail
    more proprietary nVidia bull i'd guess.
    Reply
  • sot010174
    liquidsnake718The real question is, how will this effect your eyes in the long run
    Yeah, I tried that goggles that came with the Asus Geforce3 Ti200 and felt sick after 5 minutes of usage.

    I like the idea, but please take extra care testing it!
    Reply
  • dafin0
    last week i got myself a 22' 3D monitor and the nvidia glasses... i must say it is pretty dam cool, maybe not $600(AUD)cool but i do think it really adds to the game play.

    and for anyone wondering, yes at first it does kinda mess with your eyes, but after about 15 min then a brake your eyes/brain are used to it.
    Reply
  • spoofedpacket
    nfailmore proprietary nVidia bull i'd guess.
    Ah yes, the inevitable anti-nVidia troll. Thank you for showing up! Will you be here all week?

    I'm just hoping for some 3d certified IPS panels. I really can't handle looking at TN panels anymore.
    Reply
  • dragonsqrrl
    captaincharismai hate this 3D crap. did i just go back in time to the 1970's or what?3D is actually taking off quite a bit, and the technology has improved vastly since the mid 20th century (...70's?). Sony will make the PS3 3D capable in games and Blu-ray through a firmware update this summer, a whole wave of 3D capable televisions and Blu-ray players are about to come out along with HDMI 1.4, and Nvidia is leading the way as well on the PC. And o ya, have seen or heard about Avatar?
    Reply
  • Hellbound
    I think 3D is a fad.
    Reply
  • falchard
    I think this looks bad for Epic. They sell game engines, yet they are limiting the engine by catering to a specific market share. Not a good idea at all for Epic. They should have used Bullet Physics and and OpenCL version of Stereoscopic vision. They would sell more engine rights if they catered to the whole market instead of just nVidia. Especially with ATI having the better GPUs currently.
    Compared to the Unreal 2 Engine, the Unreal 3 engine has sold far less. This just goes to show that Epic has lost focus on what truly matters in making a middle-ware engine. Options that cater to the greatest amount of users.
    Reply