Watch the Next-Generation Unreal Graphics NOW

By Marcus Yam
published

Epic Games is now more than just a games developer – it's an engine technology maker that licenses its software to other developers to help designers make the games rather than the tools.

At GDC, Epic showed off the most bleeding-edge version of Unreal Engine 3. It was so advanced that it could be called Unreal Engine 4 -- except that it runs all on present-day hardware. Of course, it took no less than three GeForce GTX 580 in SLI to get this done, but it's amazing to think that something like this is possible with readily available hardware. Now all we need is the software.

You've seen the screenshots; now feast your eyes on it in motion:

And just in case you wanted to see some of the high-res stills, here are the screenshots once again:

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.
70 Comments Comment from the forums
  • unionoob
    sadly its on youtube and stream quality will be bad :(

    Is there anywhere to download 1080p video instead of youtube?
    Reply
  • tony singh
    Days of my hd 4870 are going to end soon ;)
    Reply
  • illuminatuz
    man!! before you make any more of such engines that can make a new PC go down the lane by 10 years, mention the minimum/recommended PC requirements to play it!! Its a pain in the ass to keep upgrading the PC every now and then!! leave PS and XBOX alone!!! FFS don't get so n00b!!! There are people who want to play!! not just watch!! use this technology in making MOVIES!!! or atleast use simpler algorithms so that our graphics cards can ease out a little instead of so much complex ones that throws our brand new pc look like an old 1900's scrap!!!! please for god's sake!!!
    Reply
  • ZyxMEvEuuxcZ
    I not impressed at all
    Human face still don't look 100% realistic.
    Reply
  • sudeshc
    Ultra smooth graphics dam good.
    Reply
  • N.Broekhuijsen
    illuminatuzman!! before you make any more of such engines that can make a new PC go down the lane by 10 years, mention the minimum/recommended PC requirements to play it!! Its a pain in the ass to keep upgrading the PC every now and then!! leave PS and XBOX alone!!! FFS don't get so n00b!!! There are people who want to play!! not just watch!! use this technology in making MOVIES!!! or atleast use simpler algorithms so that our graphics cards can ease out a little instead of so much complex ones that throws our brand new pc look like an old 1900's scrap!!!! please for god's sake!!!You! You're the type of person that's the reason that this is not standard yet on PC's.

    + this is only development, it's not like anyone is insane enough to release games that actually need this at this stage. Perhaps in 2-3 years time, and then we will still have settings for LOWERED QUALITY.
    Reply
  • HE'S GOT SOME REAL PURTY LIPS THAR.

    Reply
  • schmich
    Some things looked great, whilst others not so much. Also one thing I dislike about the Unreal engines is that their environments are very static so all games are arcade-like. It's much more fun when you can destroy everything like in the Frostbite engine.

    TH: have you still not fixed the logins on posting? Lets say I write a post, click submit and then TH says I'm not logged. So I login on that popup and then the page is refreshed and the post is completely gone!
    Reply
  • Rizlla
    Looks very good. I will have to get that 6950 sooner then.
    Reply
  • seboj
    illuminatuzman!! before you make any more of such engines that can make a new PC go down the lane by 10 years, mention the minimum/recommended PC requirements to play it!! Its a pain in the ass to keep upgrading the PC every now and then!! leave PS and XBOX alone!!! FFS don't get so n00b!!! There are people who want to play!! not just watch!! use this technology in making MOVIES!!! or atleast use simpler algorithms so that our graphics cards can ease out a little instead of so much complex ones that throws our brand new pc look like an old 1900's scrap!!!! please for god's sake!!!

    Yes, Epic, please stop your technological progression so that this guy doesn't have to buy a new computer part.
    Reply