Game developers were given a sneak peak at the Unreal Engine 4 this March at the GDC, and finally the time has come for us non-developers to have a look at what the next-gen technology has on offer. The latest Unreal Engine’s architecture is said to offer fully dynamic lighting features that supposedly reduce development time. A trailer of things to come can be spotted below.
Going into the details, this technology will allow game-makers to integrate updates directly into their projects without ever pausing gameplay. Its Hot Reload trait would enable them to find and edit C++ codes easily, and see those changes reflected immediately. The Instant Game Preview feature of the Unreal Engine 4 will let them test their games instantly by spawning a player anywhere, without having to wait for files to save.
“Artists and designers can bring their visions to life directly in game without programmer assistance via the new Unreal Kismet. This offers programmers the freedom to focus on core gameplay features and sophisticated systems. With significant new visual features, Unreal Engine 4 enables you to achieve high-end visuals, while remaining both scalable and accessible to make games for low-spec PCs,” reads a post on the Unreal Engine 4’s official blog.
Epic Games has revealed that this technology’s Live Kismet Debugging would allow developers to visualize the flow of gameplay code while testing their titles, whereas they would also be able to quickly debug and update gameplay behaviors with the new Simulate Mode. While the Immersive View tool will let them view their projects in full-screen, the Possess/Eject features would enable them to ‘eject’ from the player and take control of the camera easily.
It is still pretty premature to estimate when and in which game we’d get to witness the prowess of the Unreal Engine 4. The demo that’s shown in the video above has been confirmed to be running on a PC.