What engine will Dishonored use? : Othor Games

» Sat May 12, 2012 9:44 am

Well in fact there's no such thing as "Unreal 3.5": the guys at Epic keep adding features, fixing stuff, improving their code, etc... And from time to time, when they consider their engine evolved enough compared to the previous major version, they promote it to a new version number.

So basically for Dishonored we're keeping an eye on these changes, grab some, leave others, and also developed a whole bunch of homemade features. But we're definitely somewhere in-between Unreal 3.0 and Unreal 3.5 !

Sounds good,

I wonder if consoles will cause a major drawback on the visuals, though.
Afaik the UE does not allow major scaling between different versions, unlike - say - the CryEngine.

Or would a DX11 patch work for a game like Dishonored? I guess you can't even tell at this stage of development. :laugh:

why use UE 3 instead of idtech 4? can you state some pro/cons?

In addition to another answer to that post: I think none of the idTech Engines are licensed anymore.

» Fri May 11, 2012 11:52 pm

Every Unreal Engine game looks like an Unreal Engine game.

That's completely not true. True, a lot of games look a lot like Gears of War, but that's just because their designers choose to do that.
Look at this game for example: http://www.powerplay.be/screenshots/fairytale-fights/fairytale-fights-4.jpg
It was made with UE3.

You can do a lot of diverse graphical styles, and the shader editor is quite extensive. You can even do cel-shading (although that's rather hard) in UE3.

The engine is just a tool, it's up to the artist to make something pretty and judging from the screenshots, they're doing that.

» Sat May 12, 2012 12:37 am

In addition to another answer to that post: I think none of the idTech Engines are licensed anymore.

They are, if they agree to Zenimax being the publisher of the game. Which is already the case here.

The engine is just a tool, it's up to the artist to make something pretty and judging from the screenshots, they're doing that.

That is true. The tool doesn't really matter much, it what the developers make out of it that matters. Which really include the engines as well, what engine they use doesn't matter, it matters how they use the engine they have.

Just because they use engine X doesn't mean the game will be awesome or svck or whatever.

» Sat May 12, 2012 3:11 am

Id software idtech5 engine is quite powerfull and I d love Arkane to use it on their next tittle [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_ymhcPpcNE[/media].Arkane started working on Dishonored and the unreal engine before joining zenimax so I guess they did not want to switch to another engine .But now zenimax studios ( id software, Arkane, bethesda..) could share their technologies for free.

» Sat May 12, 2012 2:41 am

That's not the way I'd have said it, but yeah that's definitely one reason (among many others).

I don't want to start a flame war or anything so just consider the following situation: you're playing a pure shooter (something such as, let's say, Bulletstorm). You enter a super high tech laboratory filled with tubes and jars. Enemies are coming in, bullets start flying everywhere, with a lot of smoke and particles emitted in the air... And when you finally kill your last opponent, everything returns to calm again. Now look around you: wouldn't you like the glassy stuff to be broken down with pieces of glass lying everywhere on the floor? Well, that's exactly what you'd expect to see in an immersive sim such as Dishonored, and that's the kind of stuff which is easier to achieve with Unreal (and its built-in tools) than with a lot of engines out there. Because we'd like the whole world to be dynamic and to react to the player's (and AI's!) actions the same way on consoles and on PC.

And don't get me wrong: that does not mean Dishonored is a heavy shooter.

So your saying that we will be able to smash glass and leave it on the floor?

» Sat May 12, 2012 8:34 am

Well, that's exactly what you'd expect to see in an immersive sim such as Dishonored, and that's the kind of stuff which is easier to achieve with Unreal (and its built-in tools) than with a lot of engines out there. Because we'd like the whole world to be dynamic and to react to the player's (and AI's!) actions the same way on consoles and on PC.

Ah, now that's what I like to hear. The press releases had hinted at it, but I'm glad to actually see one of the devs use the magic words.

» Fri May 11, 2012 8:48 pm

The engine is just a tool, it's up to the artist to make something pretty and judging from the screenshots, they're doing that.

While this is true, the Engine is like a Frame you can work in. Or a canvas you can work on.

It has certain attributes that others do not have.

And taking one snip from Sarakyel's explanation why they use the UE:

You enter a super high tech laboratory filled with tubes and jars.

From what I've gathered over the years, the UE is really good in displaying metal shiny stuff. Conversely, it's character models are not so good, because they often share the same metal shiny surface attributes (to an extend).

» Sat May 12, 2012 2:14 am

From what I've gathered over the years, the UE is really good in displaying metal shiny stuff. Conversely, it's character models are not so good, because they often share the same metal shiny surface attributes (to an extend).

Yeah, an effect once known as the "nextgen character look".

That's mostly due to an abusive use of specular and/or normal maps, which is a decision from the Art Direction. I believe Mass Effect performed quite well in this area, with not too shiny faces and armors for an Unreal based game...

» Fri May 11, 2012 8:42 pm

Haven't played Mass Effect (yet), but on screenshots the facesd did, in fact, look alright.

But then again, in a Sci-Fi game it doesn't matter as much. :laugh:

» Sat May 12, 2012 2:21 am

The original Deus Ex was unreal. The new one is Crystal Engine.
I like Unreal it has some very nice features.

well... It used the Unreal engine, but the renderer wasn't Unreal (AFAIK)

» Sat May 12, 2012 1:58 am

Are you guys sure its not going to use the creation engine? Bethesda said that all their future games would use it, so I'd assume that would include ones published by them as well.

Also slightly unrelated: Are the only games bethesda actually develops Fallout and TES (plus maybe brink and hunted)? They seem to be doing a lot, but most of what they;ve done or announced lately is just published by them.

» Sat May 12, 2012 4:50 am

Are you guys sure its not going to use the creation engine? Bethesda said that all their future games would use it, so I'd assume that would include ones published by them as well

only the games actually developed by Bethesda Game Studios, apart from maybe a handful of specific titles (like a future Fallout spinoff).

Also slightly unrelated: Are the only games bethesda actually develops Fallout and TES (plus maybe brink and hunted)?

Brink was Splash Damage and Hunted was inXile. Fallout and TES are BGS's only games right now, though maybe we'll see something new in the future (like them picking up the Arcanum license to spite Codex).

» Sat May 12, 2012 4:50 am

From what I've gathered over the years, the UE is really good in displaying metal shiny stuff. Conversely, it's character models are not so good, because they often share the same metal shiny surface attributes (to an extend).

Maybe in games using the old 2006 build of the engine, but UE3 now is a LOT more versatile with shaders. Have you seen Gears of war 3? I'm actually surprised they managed to get some form of Subsurface scattering on the skin, fake or not.

very sad for me. I hate this commercial engine (unreal).

Do YOU even know what you're talking about?