Epic has made a name for itself over the last decade by supplying the gaming public with free software development kits of their current game engine technology. Unreal Engine 3 is no different, and Epic has updated the Unreal 3 SDK with a bunch of new capabilities that many other engines already support.
The new update includes the following features:
- A complete foliage editor, allowing users to produce rolling, forested environments similar to those found in the recent Tribes: Ascend gameplay trailer (which uses UE3).
- A complete set of customizable map templates which allow users to set up lighting environments really easily
- Generally easier lighting solutions
- Generally easier mobile workflow pipelines
- A new Level of Detail generator application called Simplygone
- A new debugger functionality in the Kismet Visual programming interface
- Various profiling, performance, and memory improvements
- Updates to Unreal Landscape, Unreal 3's terrain generation system
- Various other improvements!
Finally, the official UDK blog has posted a short showcase article on the upcoming mech-combat UE3 game Hawken.
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