Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Unreal 3 engine being ported to Wii



Mark Rein, vice president of Epic Games, has confirmed that a licensee of their Unreal 3 graphics engine is porting it to the Wii. Rein spoke to gaming website Kikizo:

I just don't see a big market there to bring this big hulking memory intensive engine over to a much smaller system. I mean, I'm sure some of our licensees, just as a commercial exercise, will probably do it.

I know one of our licensee who's giving it a shot; it's their own port, in the same way Ubisoft brought Unreal Engine 2 to the Wii - I mean Splinter Cell and Red Steel - Unreal Engine 2, and there's a few others... but it's just, we won't don't do it ourselves.

Look, there's so many things we can do and are already doing, to improve our engine, on the platforms we're aiming it at, that going back and working on that [for Wii] just doesn't make sense.


Rein said last month that he believes that the Wii is an unattractive platform for engine developers, stating that "the big software dollars right now are being earned on Xbox360" and, in future, on PlayStation3. He went on to say that "unless you are going to sell your engine to Nintendo, you are going for scraps on that platform."




Well, someone seems to be keen on going after those scraps. And bringing any graphics engine to any platform should be possible, as I have recently learnt.

At the Games Convention, I spoke to a developer from Propaganda Games, the studio who is currently using Unreal 3 technology for ´Turok´ (Xbox360, PS3). He said that the engine could easily be accomodated to a system like the Wii. It was simply a question of having the necessary tools at your disposal or having to develop them yourself.

Whether the Wii´s limited output compared to the other two consoles might justify such an effort may be another thing. But we won´t find out until we actually see the game in question. This is, of course, providing that the licensee is successful in porting the engine over.

Here is some notable guest commentary on the subject:



Blood out of a stone

Best of luck to them. But honestly, the Wii? I love the thing, but you can't actually get blood out of a stone. That's just a saying!
Kotaku




The lawsuit frenzy

Rein might have a point, given the Wii's hardware limitations in relation to Epic's goal with Unreal Engine 3. Then again, developers don't usually go through the labor-intensive process of porting engines to consoles unless there are either tools that streamline the development process or they're looking to go multiplatform. (If it's the latter, we'd suspect a major studio like Ubisoft or Electronic Arts.)

Option three, of course, is that someone is hoping to fail and get in on some of the lawsuit frenzy.
Joystiq




Red Steel worked out pretty well, right?

Anyone remember when Ubisoft ported Unreal Engine 2 to the Wii for Red Steel? That worked out pretty well, right? Right ... ?
Destructoid




Any benefits?

Would UE3 on Wii actually give us any benefits? We'd be more interested in Nintendo farming out the Galaxy tech...
CVG




Brothers in Arms for Wii

I think it is a really safe bet to say that Brothers in Arms for the Wii is the title using the Unreal Engine 3. Especially after hearing the question asked in the recent IGN interview.
GoNintendo




Getting some real, solid shooters

With Ubisoft using Unreal Engine 2 for flawed million-plus-seller Wii launch title Red Steel, and Red Steel 2 in the works, it seems a foregone conclusion. Color me optimistic (as I often am), but I see this as an important step toward getting some real, solid shooters on the platform.
Aeropause




A winner all around

If I had to put my bets on anyone, it would be Ubisoft. They managed to use the Unreal Engine 2 for Red Steel and the upcoming sequel, Red Steel 2. If anyone manages to squeeze the Unreal Engine 3 into the Wii, you can expect some great looking, rock-solid shooters to come out on the console. If they manage to borrow some control design from Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, then we have a winner all around.
GayGamer




A significantly weaker machine

While it all sounds good the Unreal Engine 3 is a powerhouse, infact a friend of mine running

Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.20GHz (2 CPUs)
1534MB RAM
RADEON X600 Series

finds it hard to run the engine above medium (Tested on Unreal Tournament 3), so how a significantly weaker machine [wii] will run it.....
MyWii




EDIT The good people over at Gamasutra have also interviewed Rein on the topic. Although he does not mention the mystery licensee, Rein goes into some more detail about why he thinks Wii is an unattractive platform for engine developers.

Source: Kikizo
Thanks to: Cyriel

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

"gaygamer"..... wwwwwwwhot the fuck falafel?????

- the irrelevant asshole lame scumbag

;))

ey falafel glaub mir factor 5 müsste nur die rebel strike engine auspacken und bißn tunen und wir hätten die 480p BOMBE....benchmark....

-IALS

Anonymous said...

get back in your hole ials. and type english for wiis sake.

RGB said...

I'd rather him speak in German, but either way I dont read his trash anyway. Either does Fal.

Geo said...

I think the news about the Unreal 3 Engine is indeed quite interesting and of importance. But becoming a failed project or a great success, either way it will definitely take quite a long time to find out.

I would be more interested to read next time if there is any insider info, scoop, comment or so from Falafelkid about the recent closure for reconstruction of the NOE Site. Being quite close after the official closure of the forums and getting Christmas time soon, should we expect something bigger? Maybe something with Wii connectivity too? Are we getting the Reviews and DS demo channel that got released in Japan a couple of days ago any time soon? And what is wrong with the gaygamer site, seems ok too me! :P

Anonymous said...

dont use a pc to determine wether wii can or carntrun somthing

guess why wii is a closed custom tightly intergrated gamingsystem

a pc is a open computer there totally differant things cough commonsence cough apply it

a wii opengl version of unreal 3 can easily be done by devswilling to do it

make a fixed function wii version thatusesdata streaming from disc and a capped 480p and simply max the engine out then add wii custom effects and custom tev shader support

presto smooth fast good looking wii unreal games and ports

mark rainsbug up the butt is wii isso efficent andeasy to code developers dont need middleware to code it they can buildengines as they dev the cool pease of silicon

Anonymous said...

To bad to hear this, but aren't there other companys that make their own 3d engine? I am still hoping that developers like Capcom or factor 5 will surprise the gamers again in a pleasant way. It seems that Ubisoft has promised to improve the quality of their Wii-games. I hope they will deliver quality both with the gameplay as with the graphics.

Metaldave said...

If Mark Rein thinks all the money is with Xbox 360 and PS3, he is nuts. Mass Effect's debut sales for the first week were 190k, very poor for a game that took millions and millions of dollars to develop. RE4 for the Wii probably didn't cost Capcom much at all and it has sold over 1 million worldwide so far. The money is with the Wii, make a good game and you'll see some profit instead of loosing thousands or maybe millions on the other systems because of the high dev cost.

RGB said...

Looks like I hit a sensitive spot heh. Fal has not responded to you for like maybe nearly one year, have you figured out why?

Anyone who talks big online IALS usually cant back up their words. I have nothing to prove, seems you do :)
----------------------
U3 engine is very significant. Dumbed down or whatever, I am sure will still look extremely good on the Wii. I am all for it.

I am having a lot of fun with Medal Of Honor 2 Heroes right now and I am not even into FPS games. Graphically it is ok, not unattractive, and I also keep myself away from looking at COD4. But its the game I like on Wii, so it doesnt really matter what COD4 looks like really.

Anonymous said...

Metal Dave, the launch week sales of a recent game versus the overall sales of a game that has been out for quite some time makes for a very unfair comparison.

The console is selling like nuts, the first party games are predictable hits, and casual games seem to be doing quite well, but I'm not sure the Wii is too lucrative for third party developers quite yet.

Back on topic: Using the Unreal 3 engine on the Wii seems like a huge waste of time, to me. Maybe there are a few fancy features that would make it through, but I'd expect that the potential of a cutting edge engine like that would be wasted on a system with so little horsepower. It sounds like it would be more productive to license older engines like Unreal 2 that aren't works in progress, since you'd be getting roughly the same video quality.

Besides, Unreal 2 seems to put some nice stuff out on the hardware. Even though it played TERRIBLY, Red Steel looked pretty.

Anonymous said...

I dont give a ..... biatch to begin with...

Its funny how you always talk for falafelkid as if you were his personal ass wiper assistant..its like you his lifestyle-secretary-james..its quite gay actually ;))....you must be obsessed with him grandmaster biatch I'm afraid....somebody should have told you
;)))

sorry g master b ;)))but I can't take someone seriously who calls himself "grandmaster" for no comprehendable reason...oh..... wait a second now I understand...so you must be the grandmaster in ass wiping huh?!....aaaaahh....that makes a whole lot of sense to me all of sudden....but g master really why dont you just go piss of somewhere else.......... your utter biatchness is becoming tedious.....you are transparent

;))))

- The Irrelevant Annoying Laughing Stock

Anonymous said...

Thank you, anonymous, for reminding me why I sharply cut my intake of message board discussions.

RGB said...

I think everyone knows here who become transparent a long long time ago.

Dont get all teary because Fal wont even read or comment on your messages and go off saying I am his secretary just because I am speaking for him.

If you weren't such a insignificant fool and actually add something half decent to say to the discussion, maybe then you might get some respect.

Grow up.

But anyway stop trashing the blog.
---------------
Mark Rein is a stubborn man and makes himself into something he is not. He has an old way of thinking and is a little blind to the truth, or is simply siding with who is looking after him.

Anonymous said...

"Dont get all teary because Fal wont even read or comment on your messages and go off saying I am his secretary just because I am speaking for him."

falfel ich glaube du solltest Herrn grandmaster b mal anheuern....er macht sich doch gut als dein personal blog defender-James...dessen bin ich mir sicher...

grandmaster b.....the last stand...defender of the blog universe....die hard blog sheriff.....fighting the evil IALS villian- parasite...against all odds...grandmaster b aka neo...the chosen one..may the force be with you....omg I wish Uwe boll would make a movie starring grandmaster b as himself....

;))))))))))))))))))))

llllllllllllllllllllloooooooooo
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
ooooooooooooooooooooooooo
oooolooooooooooooooooo
oooooooooo
ooloooo
oooo
ool

grandmaster;))....... you are too funny I'm tellin you.. you make my day allday everyday...please keep it coming..

your biggest fan:

-IALS

Anonymous said...

This might come off as spam, but it is not intended to do so. I was just having some trouble finding a wii for my son and well me as well lol. And I found a site which displaysall available wii's and other gaming systems.
WiiHaveGameConsoles
www.wiihaveconsoles.com

Anonymous said...

he ials, warum nicht du Bumsen sich gehst

Anonymous said...

http://www.netjak.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=9165

or

http://www.netjak.com/forum/
viewtopic.php?t=9165

-"superfan" tactics.

Anonymous said...

It seems that at long last, we can now exchange our stars for wii points :

http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=89006

Even at a four stars for one wii point rate, that's good news...well, to me, anyway!

[mec] rincewind

Anonymous said...

Unreal Engine 3 being ported to Wii? I'm all for it, but it may not turn out well if that licencee half-assed this like what Ubisoft did with the Unreal Engine 2 on Red Steel.

According to Revogamer's interview with Factor 5's lead programmer, Julian Eggbrecht, the Unreal Engine 3 may not practically work on the Wii if the engine was designed for hardware such as the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in mind. So, I do understand where Mark Rein is coming from on this, but not from a marketing standpoint.

Nonetheless, I would be happy to see how anyone would port it.

Anonymous said...

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