14 DAY TRIAL // After a lot of speculation and many rumors, Epic Games has finally pulled the curtain off its Unreal Engine 4 technology and talked about its next big product, while showing off the first actual screenshots from a demo that’s running on the tech.
While we’ve heard many rumors about next-generation consoles, like the PlayStation 4 or Xbox 720, we’ve also been treated with an array of teaser statements and details by Epic Games concerning its upcoming Unreal Engine 4 technology, which is designed to take advantage of new consoles and PCs.
Now, after the studio showed it off behind closed doors at GDC earlier this year, Wired magazine has posted a special feature story about Unreal Engine 4, complete with the first screenshots from the demo showed by Epic to one of its reporters.
While Epic has already impressed many with the Samaritan demo back at the 2011 GDC expo, which ran on a modified version of Unreal Engine 3, the studio wants to amaze everyone with the demo for the actual Unreal Engine 4.
According to the developer, the demo was made over the course of three months by a team of 14 engineers, and was showcased running on a PC powered by just a single graphics card, in the form of Nvidia’s new Kepler-based GTX 680.
The visual detail, as you can see in the screenshots below, is quite impressive and, judging by Wired’s description, the whole demo uses an array of high quality effects that, if recreated on platforms like the Xbox 360 or PS3, would grind them to a halt.
While the introduction shows off the demon knight above, the demo is completely playable from a first-person perspective and serves to show just how many effects will be seen by players during actual gameplay, not just in cut scenes.
Unreal Engine 4 will bring not only great graphics to users, but also simplified development tools for those who make the games, from lighting that can easily be modified, in order to lower production time and costs.
The first public unveil of the Unreal Engine 4 will take place next month, at the E3 2012 expo. Until then, admire the screenshots from the demo below.
