The Future of Gaming is Here

GDC came and went again, and once again, the Developer's conference has delivered something for gamers to look forward to. Epic finally unveiled some of the details behind their Unreal Engine 3, which supports full Direct X11. The event itself has brought some exciting news, however, to some, even words like DirectX 11 or even Unreal Engine mean nothing, so I won't even go into detail Subsurface Scattering and Deferred Rendering. What I will do is explain what the mean for gaming visuals in the most simple terms possible, with images to help illustrate this provided by ign.com. The big draw is realistic lighting reflections. Previously something incredibly difficult to render graphically is now coming around. It demonstrates how light now acts more realistic on a variety of surfaces. This allows for more interaction with the environment as well as for overall better looking games. Subsurface Scattering also deals with rendering light, and its easiest to explain using the example of a human being as opposed to a plastic action figure. The light doesn't always reflect off human skin making it look glossy like many video games have been displaying it lately. On the contrary, it is quite common for it to penetrate certain areas. Even games that have had amazing visuals (see Uncharted) have also fallen to such smaller details. What Epic promises with Unreal Engine 3 is indeed something revolutionary for lighting in game visuals.

The other big thing about the engine

is anti-aliasing. Aliasing refers to the jagged look of a lot of video games, sharp edges where those shouldn't be. The new engine promises a more refined process that makes surfaces smoother, especially hair.

There are a few other innovative ideas that come from Unreal Engine 3. The new engine will also aid in better displaying depth of field for many games as well as make deferred rendering available to a wider array of developers. Deferred rendering allows for scenes in games to be "drawn" at the last possible second which also allows to get

more lighting and details to be displayed on screen. For more information and a detailed breakdown of all of the features by someone who knows a whole lot more than me head over to IGN.