Epic Games, Inc. has released the July 2012 Unreal Development Kit Beta, the latest version of the free edition of Unreal Engine 3 that provides access to the award-winning 3D game engine and professional toolset used in blockbuster video game development, architectural visualization, mobile game development, 3D rendering, digital films and more. The latest UDK beta is available now for download.
Perforce Integration
The July release of the Unreal Development Kit (UDK) includes the best-of-breed Perforce version management system from Perforce Software. This new offering enables UDK developers to utilize professional-grade version control tools for up to 20 users and 20 workstations at no charge, with no restrictions on time limit or file quantity. In addition, the latest enhancements to Epic’s engine make it even more seamless to leverage Perforce for the game production pipeline.
Check out the full press release here.
Public Demo of UE4 at GDC Europe
Join us for the first non-NDA public real-time demo of Unreal Engine 4 given at GDC Europe, August 13-15 in Cologne, Germany.
Epic Games Senior Technical Artist, Alan Willard, will walk-through the tools, visual features and architecture behind Unreal Engine 4’s unprecedented graphical capabilities and workflow improvements. For additional information, please visit http://www.unrealengine.com/.
July 2012 UDK Beta Upgrade Notes
New Features and Functionality
Perforce Integration
- Enables UDK developers to utilize professional-grade version control tools for up to 20 users and 20 workstations at no charge, with no restrictions on time limit or file quantity
- The software provides branching and merging control, enabling teams to work on different assets simultaneously while keeping file management in order
- Integrated with graphical tools such as Photoshop, Softimage, 3ds Max and Maya
Normal Map Workflow Improvement
- We have improved the workflow of baking and rendering normal maps
- Notice it’s a far lower polycount than we could use before since there is no supporting chamfers or subdivisions
- This workflow currently relies on using XNormal to bake normal maps but produces much higher quality shading than before
- The Normal map workflow you’ve used in the past will still work, but if you want higher quality shading, this is currently the best workflow to use
- It also allows you to use much less supporting geometry since you don’t have to fight incorrect shading
- The first step is to make sure your model consists of 1 smoothing group
- It also helps to triangulate your model using a modifier, that way you don’t have to worry about any application changing your triangles
- When exporting your lowpoly model for xnormal, use these settings:
- The important points are the smoothing groups, and tangents & binormals
- When loading your lowpoly model into Xnormal make sure “Use exported normals” is enabled
- After baking your normal map, export your low poly models for Unreal using the SAME FBX settings as before
- When importing your model into Unreal, enable “Import Tangents” and “Explicit Normals”
General Purpose .ini Overrides From Command Line
- You can override basic .ini values on the command line now (in Debug/Release/Test, not Shipping/FINAL_RELEASE) (arrays and structs not handled)
- It’s mostly meant for mobile (or console), where it’s easy to change the command line, but can be hard to recook your data just to update a .ini setting
- It works like this: ini:IniName:Section1.Key1=Value1,Section2.Key2=Value2,…
- For example: ini:UDKEngine:Engine.Engine.bSmoothFrameRate=False,TextureStreaming.PoolSize=100 ini:AwesomeGame:AwesomeBoss.HitPoints=100000
- It’s important to use the proper .ini name
- The functionality has only been tested with the generated .ini files (UDKEngine, not DefaultEngine), so it is suggested that you only use those
- On PC it will update your local generated .ini file.
- On consoles/mobile, those .inis are read only, so it will only affect that run of the game
Unreal Editor
- Brush cursor will no longer move in viewport while panning around in Material Editor
- Child nodes can now be individually added to favorites in the properties pane
- Holding down ctrl to spectate ‘Play in editor’ now works properly
- In Geometry mode, Brush Clipping and Pen mode now draws the grid snap box again
- Removed “Merge Static Meshes” option from right click menu, use Group’s Merge option instead
- Sound Actor’s Sound Cues can now be found in the Content Browser
- The content browser now keeps focus after loading/unloading switches
- Converting a brush to a static mesh now places the pivot of the static mesh in the center of the mesh, rather than at the origin
- Unless there are multiple brushes selected
- This also now applies to Exporting the brush as well
- Added support for multiple search terms to Content Browser’s Package List search box
- Fixed post process effects on scene captures
- Fixed an issue that prevented the color picker from updating the property window when values where typed into various color picker controls
OpenAutomate Integration
- Integrated performance automation tool from NVIDIA
- Currently set up to run NightandDay and DM-Deck flythrough’s to automatically provide performance and compatibility metrics
- http://www.nvidia.fr/object/openautomate.html
Mobile
- Added DrawTimer to Canvas - it draws a “piechart” type of icon, can indicate time passing, etc.
- Added better save game encryption support
- Added support for background (iPod) music (bUsingBackgroundMusic)
- Added support for showing built in SMS and Mail dialog
- Improved memory situation on low end devices by tossing unused high detail assets
- Added partial achievement unlocking (defaults to 100, but can be used on platforms that support incremental completion on the server, like GameCenter)
- Added an animation option to allow some nodes to tick while paused
- Added ProcessWorldTouch to MobilePlayerInput to Handle touch events in the 3D world
- Auto-Reconnect in UnrealConsole now works with iOS
New and Updated UDN Pages
- Mobile
- UnrealScript
- Getting Started
- Misc
- http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/DeferredShadingDX11.html
- http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/APEXClothing.html
- http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/MaterialEditorUserGuide.html
- http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/XNormalWorkflow.html
- http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/DevelopmentKitGems.html
- http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/CommandLineArguments.html
- http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/Bloom.html
- http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/GameplayProfiler.html
- http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/DevelopmentKitFAQ.html
- http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/APEXOverview.html
- http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/UDKTrademarksAndLogos.html
- http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ConsoleCommands.html
- http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/OnlineSubsystemSteamworks.html
- http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/SystemSettings.html