Unreal Engine

Unreal technology redirects here. For science or UnrealScript. The initial network performance was also
technology which is beyond reality, see science ction.
poor when compared to its biggest competitor, Quake II.
Epic used this engine for both Unreal and Unreal TourThe Unreal Engine is a game engine developed by Epic nament. The release of Unreal Tournament marked great
strides in both network performance and Direct3D and
Games, rst showcased in the 1998 rst-person shooter
[13]
game Unreal. Although primarily developed for rst- OpenGL support.
person shooters, it has been successfully used in a variety
of other genres, including stealth, MMORPGs, and other
RPGs. With its code written in C++, the Unreal Engine
features a high degree of portability and is a tool used by
many game developers today.[2][3]

The engine became popular due to the modular engine

architecture and the inclusion of a scripting language,
which made it easy to mod, including total conversions
like Tactical Ops.[14][15]

The current release is Unreal Engine 4, designed for

Microsoft's DirectX 11 and 12[4] (for Microsoft Win- 1.2
dows, Xbox One, Windows RT); OpenGL (for OS
X, Linux, PlayStation 4, iOS, Android, Ouya[5] and
Windows XP[6] ); and JavaScript/WebGL (for HTML5
Web browsers).[7][8][9]

1
1.1

Unreal Engine 2

Versions
Unreal Engine 1

Killing Floor was built in Unreal Engine 2.

The second version made its debut in 2002 with Americas

Army, a free multiplayer shooter created and funded by
the US Army. This generation saw the core code and
rendering engine completely re-written. In addition, it
featured UnrealEd 2, which debuted with the previous
generation of the engine and was shortly followed later
by UnrealEd 3, along with the Karma physics SDK. This
physics engine powered the ragdoll physics in Unreal
Tournament 2003 and Unreal Championship. Other engine elements were also updated, with improved assets
as well as adding support for the GameCube and the
Xbox. Support for the PlayStation 2 console was previously added in UE1. Taking Xbox aside, both GameCube
and PS2 were never supported directly by Epic, support
being instead farmed out to Secret Level said builds were
stale and left behind, the last ocial build PS2 and GC
saw was build 927 dated April 2002; last ocial UE2.5
build was build 3369. As such, third parties looking to
use further Unreal Engine revisions had to do their own
builds throughout the generation, as they had to in more
recent years with the Wii, X360, PS3, PSP, and 3DS.

Unreal was the rst game using the Unreal Engine.

Making its debut in 1998 with Unreal, the rst generation Unreal Engine integrated rendering, collision detection, AI, visibility, networking, scripting, and le system management into one complete engine. Unreal Engine 1 provided an advanced software rasterizer[11] and a
hardware-accelerated rendering path using the Glide API,
specically developed for 3dfx GPUs,[12] and was updated for OpenGL and Direct3D. Large parts of the game
were implemented in a custom scripting language called
1

1 VERSIONS

UE2.5, an update to the original version of UE2,

improved rendering performance and added vehicles
physics, a particle system editor for UnrealEd, and 64-bit
support in Unreal Tournament 2004. A specialized version of UE2.5 called UE2X was used for Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conict on the original Xbox platform. It featured optimizations specic to that console.
EAX 3.0 is also supported for sound. Unreal Engine 2.X
was build 2227, dated March 2004.

supports many advanced techniques including HDRR,

per-pixel lighting, and dynamic shadows. It also builds on
the tools available in previous versions. In October 2011,
the engine was ported to support Adobe Flash Player 11
through the Stage 3D hardware-accelerated APIs. Epic
has used this version of the engine for their in-house
games. Aggressive licensing of this iteration has garnered
a great deal of support from many prominent licensees.
Epic has announced that Unreal Engine 3 runs on both
[32]
On March 23, 2011, Ubisoft Montreal revealed that Windows 8 and Windows RT. The rst released console game using Unreal Engine 3 was Gears of War and
UE2.5 was successfully running on the Nintendo
the rst released PC game was RoboBlitz.
[16][17]
3DS.
In addition to the game industry, UE3 has also seen adoption by many non-gaming projects, for instance:

1.3

Unreal Engine 3
The popular childrens TV show LazyTown used
UE3 during lming to generate virtual sets for realtime integration with footage of actors and puppets
performing in front of green screens.[33]
In March 2012, the FBI licensed Epics Unreal Engine 3 to use in a simulator for training.[34]
The animation software "Muvizu Play, which was
released in April 2013, uses UE3.[35]
Unreal Development Kit

Zeno Clash II was built in Unreal Engine 3.

The rst screenshots of Unreal Engine 3 were presented

in 2004,[27] at which point the engine was in development
for 18 months already.[28] Unlike Unreal Engine 2, which
still supported xed-function pipeline, Unreal Engine 3
was designed to take advantage of fully programmable
shader hardware (in DirectX 9 terms, it required shader
model 3.0). All lighting calculations were done per-pixel,
instead of per-vertex. On the rendering side, Unreal Engine 3 also provided support for a gamma-correct highdynamic range renderer. UE3 expected that content was
authored in both high- and low-resolution version and
baked normal maps for run-time; a major dierence to
previous generations where the game content was modeled directly (since normal mapping is a per-pixel operation and almost all the dynamic lighting in UE1 and 2
was calculated per-vertex using a Gouraud Shading technique)

The Ball was built in the UDK.

While Unreal Engine 3 has been quite open for modders

to work with, the ability to publish and sell games made
using UE3 was restricted to licensees of the engine. However, in November 2009, Epic released a free version of
UE3s SDK, called the Unreal Development Kit (UDK),
that is available to the general public.[37] According to the
current EULA, game developers can sell their games by
paying Epic the cost of $99 USD, and 25% royalty on
UDK related revenue above US$50,000 from all UDKbased games or commercial applications.[38][39]

The third generation of the Unreal Engine is designed for

DirectX (versions 9-11 for Windows, Windows RT and
Xbox 360), as well as systems using OpenGL, including the PlayStation 3, OS X, iOS, Android, Stage 3D for
Adobe Flash Player 11, JavaScript/WebGL for HTML5
Web Browsers,[29] PlayStation Vita, and Wii U.[30] Ini- The December 2010 UDK release added support for cretially, Unreal Engine 3 only supported Windows, Xbox ating iOS games and apps. UDKs iOS development fea360, and PlayStation 3 platforms, while Android and iOS ture set includes:[40][41]
were added later in 2010 (with Innity Blade being the
The full source and content for Epic Citadel, plus an
rst iOS title and Dungeon Defenders the rst Android
title). OS X support was added in 2011.[31] Its renderer
additional castle demo map.

1.3

Unreal Engine 3

Support for major Unreal Engine 3 desktop features,

including the Unreal Editor and its fully integrated
suite of tools including Unreal Kismet, Unreal Cascade and Unreal Matinee.
Superior rendering systems, including Unreal Lightmass global illumination supported by Unreal
Swarm distributed computing.
Content streaming functionality.
Advanced lighting and shadowing such as per-pixel
lighting and real-time shadows.
Console-quality capabilities.
Full Unreal Kismet visual scripting functionality,
which allows the developers to create games without having to modify program code.
Convenient mobile previewer makes it possible to
emulate games at native resolution for quick iteration.
UDK Remote enables iOS devices to serve as wireless controllers with full touch and tilt functionality
for testing games on the computer.
As of the September 2011 release, iOS, OS X and Windows platforms all support UDK-created games.
Updates

3
The ability to add fracture eects to static
meshes to simulate destructible environments
Soft body dynamics (physics)
Large crowd simulation
In December 2009, Epic demoed UE3 running on
Apple's 3rd generation iPod Touch. They said that
this will also support iPhone 3GS, and also an unknown mobile platform which has been revealed to
be webOS at CES 2010.[43] It has been revealed so
far to be something on Nvidias Tegra platform, and
also Palms webOS running PowerVRs SGX chip.
In March 2010, Steamworks was integrated into the
software, and is oered to licensees.[44]
In June 2010, Epic Games revealed Epic Citadel,
a tech demo to showcase Unreal Engine 3 on iOS
devices (iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad devices).
In June 2010 during the Electronic Entertainment
Expo 2010, Mark Rein (vice president of Epic
Games) showcased a tech demo of Gears of War 2 in
stereoscopic 3D running on an Xbox 360 thanks to
the TriOviz for Games Technology. This technologys great because it works on normal HD TVs, as
well as the very high end 3DTVs, Rein commented
to Computer and Video Games.[45] We're not planning to re-release this in 3D unless Microsoft want
us to but I'm sure its technology may be keen to
put in the games developed by our partners.
In October 2010, TriOviz for Games Technology has been ocially integrated in Unreal Engine
3,[46][47] allowing to easily convert in stereoscopic
3D, numerous past and upcoming games developed
on Xbox 360 and PS3 with this engine.

A comparison of Unreal Engine 1, 2, and 3s rendering capabilities using the Malcolm model from Unreal Tournament, Unreal
Tournament 2004, and Unreal Tournament 3 side-by-side.

Throughout the lifetime of UE3, signicant updates have

been incorporated:
Epic Games announced at Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2009 some improvements made to
Unreal Engine 3. These included:[42]
Unreal Lightmass: a global illumination
solver. Provides high-quality static lighting with next-generation eects, such as soft
shadows with accurate penumbrae, diuse,
specular inter-reection, and color bleeding.

As of March 2011, the Unreal 3 Engine supports DirectX 11. Epic Games showcased it
with a real-time demonstration video, entitled
Samaritan.[48] Additions include tessellation and
displacement mapping, advanced hair rendering
with MSAA, deferred shading with MSAA, screen
space subsurface scattering, image-based lighting,
billboard reections, glossy reections, reection
shadows, point light reections, and bokeh depth
of eld.[49] The Samaritan demo was unveiled during GDC 2011 as a proof of concept and target for
the 3.5 version of Epics Unreal Engine 3, ostensibly aimed at next-generation platforms.[50][51] It
was built by Epic Games in a close partnership with
NVIDIA, with engineers working around the country to push real-time graphics to a new high point.[52]
In July 2011, Geomerics announced that their realtime global illumination solution[53] Enlighten is
now integrated with Unreal Engine 3 and available
to licensees.[54]

1 VERSIONS

In October 2011, Epic Games announced that a ver- less of a divide between technical artists, designers, and
sion of the engine would be compatible with Adobe programmers.[84]
Flash Player.[55]
On March 19, 2014, at the Game Developers Conference, Epic Games released Unreal Engine 4, and all of its
In May 2012, UE3 added support for the RealD 3D
tools, features and complete C++ source code, to the destereoscopic technology.[56]
velopment community through a new subscription model.
Anyone can sign up for UE4 for Windows, OS X, iOS
In March 2013, Mozilla and Epic Games have
and Android by paying $19 per month, plus 5% of gross
demonstrated UE3 running on the browser using
revenue resulting from any commercial products built usHTML5 and JavaScript technologies.[57]
ing UE4.[85][86] CEO and founder of Epic Games, Tim
Sweeney, said that the new business model is a reection
of changes in the industry. Epic Games has traditionally
1.4 Unreal Engine 4
made its Unreal Engine available to large AAA game development teams at a cost of millions of dollars but as the
industry has evolved, Epic has had to really rethink our
whole business as to how we make the engine available to
teams.[87][88] Looking at the new shape of the industry
now, we realize thats an outdated tool, Sweeney said.
Looking at the possibilities for the engine, we started
from scratch and thought 'How can we make the engine
available to more people?'".[89] According to the Unreal
Engine website, subscribers to the engine will be able to
cancel their subscription, or renew it at any time. They
will be able to retain access to UE4 tools, but will not
receive access to future releases of Unreal Engine 4.[90]
Unreal Tournament is being built with Unreal Engine 4.

On August 17, 2005, Mark Rein, the vice-president of

Epic Games, revealed that Unreal Engine 4 had been
in development since 2003.[71] Until mid-2008, development was exclusively done by Tim Sweeney, founder
and technical director of Epic Games.[72] The engine targets the eighth generation of consoles, PCs and Tegra K1based[73] devices running Android announced in January
2014 at CES.
In February 2012, Mark Rein said people are going to
be shocked later this year when they see Unreal Engine
4.[74] Unreal Engine 4 was unveiled to limited attendees
at the 2012 Game Developers Conference,[75] and video
of the engine being demonstrated by technical artist Alan
Talisman Willard was released to the public on June 7,
2012 via GameTrailers TV.[76][77] This demo was created
on a PC with triple GeForce GTX 580 (tri SLI) and can
be run on a PC with a GeForce GTX 680.[78]
One of the major features planned for UE4 was realtime global illumination using voxel cone tracing, eliminating pre-computed lighting.[79] However, this feature
has been replaced with a similar but less computationallyexpensive algorithm prior to release for all platforms
including the PC because of performance concerns on
next-generation consoles.[80] UE4 also includes new developer features to reduce iteration time, and allows
updating of C++ code while the engine is running.
The new Blueprint visual scripting system (a successor to UE3s Kismet[81] ) allows for rapid development
of game logic without using C++, and includes live
debugging.[82][83] The result is reduced iteration time, and

On September 3, 2014, Epic Games launched the Unreal Engine Marketplace, allowing UE4 subscribers to
buy and sell community-created content of all shapes and
sizes.[91] In addition to all of the previously released free
content, the new marketplace was launched with a variety
of asset packs including full-scale environments, props,
characters, sounds, materials, animated meshes, prefab
C++ code and a number of other asset types as well as
free demos and tutorials.[92][93]
On September 4, 2014, Epic released Unreal Engine 4
to schools and universities for free, including personal
copies for students enrolled in accredited video game development, computer science, art, architecture, simulation, and visualization programs.[94][95] Nothing is stopping students from honing the skills needed to enter the
range of elds using Unreal Engine technology, from entertainment software and lm to visualization, healthcare
simulation and military training, Unreal Engine general
manager Ray Davis said in a statement. Students who
know Unreal Engine technology have a huge advantage
when it comes to job placement.[96] Schools can integrate the same fully featured version of Unreal Engine
4 previously available only to developers, along with all
future updates.[97] In addition, students retain indenite
access to any versions of the engine used during their
coursework which gives them the option to turn their class
projects into shipping projects at any time.[98]
On February 19, 2015, Epic launched Unreal Dev Grants,
a $5,000,000 development fund designed to provide nancial grants to innovative projects being built with Unreal Engine 4.[99] Awards range from $5,000 to $50,000,

5
with no strings attached: developers and artists own
their IP and are free to publish however they wish, with
no restrictions or obligations on the way the funds are
used.[100][101]
As of March 2, 2015, Unreal Engine 4 is available to everyone for free, and all future updates will be free.[102]
Epic will be issuing a pro-rated refund to people who
have paid for Unreal Engine 4 since January 31, 2015.
In addition, anyone who has ever paid for an UE4 subscription will receive a $30 credit for the Unreal Engine
Marketplace.[103] If projects are released commercially,
developers must pay a 5% royalty on gross revenue following the rst $3,000 per product, per quarter.[70][104]
On March 24, 2015, Epic Games and the Wellcome Trust
launched the Big Data VR Challenge, a virtual reality initiative that invites participants to create an immersive VR
experience to give UK biomedical and humanities researchers an alternative way to explore and present their
research.[105][106] The Challenge will explore how skills
used in video game design can be applied to benet the
scientic community. Six teams will be chosen from
among the applicants and invited to a workshop at the
Wellcome Trusts London headquarters on April 9, 2015,
where three research topics will be unveiled. Each team
will receive $5,000 to cover expenses, and grand prize of
$20,000 will be awarded to the winning team when the
Challenge culminates at the Develop Conference to be
held July 14-16, in Brighton, England.[107][108]