New Technologies to be Revealed at GDC 2005

Game technology developers Havok and Epic both plan to introduce the newest iterations of their systems at this year's GDC. Havok will be revealing the newest version of their middleware, while Epic Systems will be showing the Unreal Engine version 3 along with their new scripting tools and AI behaviors. From the article: "...seamless world support allows the creation of virtually unending environments through background management of game levels and assets. Even titles not requiring open world support will benefit from these memory management techniques on next-generation console platforms."

RPG's

[nathanmace]

Sounds like we will have some interesting RPG's to look forward to. (At least as far as the "world" in which the games take place in)

Bioware / Unreal Engine 3

[jacoplane]

Bioware have already licensed [teamxbox.com] the Unreal Engine 3 for a project they have said will be a RPG. Bioware of course is the company behind Baldur's Gate and Knights of the Old Republic.

I wonder if I can go to GDC

[Celestial Avenger]

Girlfriend used to work for a game company and had access to it. That woman better find her ID card and claim me to be an assistant. Last year she didn't even go because her co-workers said there'd be nothing there. What'd she miss? THE GOD DAMN PSP. Now to find my ninja cape.

Re:I wonder if I can go to GDC

[eli867]

GDC ain't free. It ain't even cheap.
http://www.gdconf.com/register/passoptions.htm [gdconf.com]

I don't think you are thinking what you think...

[PhoenixOne]

I think you are thinking about E3 not the GDC.

Please die (grandparent)

[I judge you]

Yeah, E3 is the one that is fucking clogged with people who do not belong there.

Re:Please die (grandparent)

[Corngood]

I agree, if I don't get a seat because people are there to gawk at the pretty pictures, I'm going to be pissed.

UReal engine looks sweet

[superpulpsicle]

But I guess I'd need a 5Ghz PC with 6GB of RAM with another $600 video card upgrade thru Nvidia/ATI.

Re:UReal engine looks sweet

[Celestial Avenger]

More like dual Intel Xeon processors, 1 to 16 GB of RAM, and a $600 video card, but you're close.

Re:UReal engine looks sweet

[Bob The Cowboy]

I think you reversed those... That should read:

But I guess I'd need another $600 video card with 5Ghz PC and 6GB of RAM upgrade thru Nvidia/ATI. [slashdot.org]

HTH

Re:UReal engine looks sweet

[oliverthered]

I more worried about the AI (or lack of), I don't care if it looks hand painted by Van gogh if it plays like a childs toy.

reading the site, the AI includes.

Paths, paths with slight deviations and using switches to open doors. Looks like it's going to be another Doom3/half-life 2

Only Slightly Stale Technologies To Be Re-Revealed

[nick_davison]

Game technology developers Havok and Epic both plan to introduce the newest iterations of their systems at this year's GDC... Epic Systems will be showing the Unreal Engine version 3

Unreal Engine 3 was demo'd at E3 last year. True, it hasn't been released yet but it's also not an introduction if the world has already been introduced to it.

I'm looking forward to the aftershow party where Michael Jackson will be unveiling his "Moonwalk", whatever that might be.

hey hey hey...

[sponga]

I dont wanna be anywhere where Michael Jackson will be unveiling anything!

Re:Only Slightly Stale Technologies To Be Re-Revea

[chromaphobic]

It says they are introducing the "newest iteration" of the engine, not intoducting the engine itself, so it's correct.

I'm curious to see whats been changed/added to the engine, it's incredibly impressive from what I've seen so far. Makes me want to quit learning Source and start learning the existing version of UnrealEd, so I'll be more ready to mess with the new version when it's done!

U3

[jericho4.0]

That engine look stunning, and the UnrealEd features look pretty sweet also. And the license is gonna be big $$$.

If even half of those features make it into the freely distributed UnrealEd, we're going to see some great mods....

Re:U3

[oliverthered]

but did you see the site... [unrealtechnology.com]

Requires IE 4.0 or compatible browser
with activex, java and javascript enabled.

add an extra processor just for the spam bot.

Re:U3

[Khuffie]

Emphasis on the 'or compatible'. Worked absolutely fine in Opera.

Unreal Engine E3 Video

[jacoplane]

Check out the video from E3:
Link [softpedia.com], Link 2 [fileplanet.com]

Seamless world support?

[drinkypoo]

I've heard this before. Is it actually here this time? (I'm downloadng the video but I won't have it for over an hour.) It's the last step to making really gigantic worlds. It would also allow you to generate new content and use it on the fly. That's key to doing things like persistent environments with deformable terrain. You could implement a first-person MUD by allowing people to place geometry objects which are processed into level data every [insert time interval here] and allowing people to destroy and manipulate the terrain as well.

Re:Seamless world support?

[XMunkki]

Seamless world support isn't that hard. All you have to do is support it from the beginning. Streaming of content is the key here. Many console games already implement streaming, some even with almost 0 cpu hit (the PS2 can stream on the PS1 processor). Also looking at World of Warcraft, I've been pretty impressed. The only times you see a loading screen is when there are large jumps in the world. Most of the game is then streamed fluently and you can walk around as you wish.

Of course, designing content to

Has the GDC always been so commercial.

[MatthewNewberg]

It seems like every year I hear more about the stuff being sold at GDC then the stuff going on at GDC. I would hope Slashdot wouldn't fall prey to the same thing.