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Epic Breaks Down Visual Effects in Unreal Engine 4

Another close look at the creation of the studio's "Infiltrator" demo.

Oct. 22 2013

Posted by: Patrick

In This Episode:

Unreal Engine 4

37 Comments

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conniejordan

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Edited By conniejordan
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BisonHero

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@john1912 said:

@maxopower: Everyone..Word of mouth, general buzz, reinforcing brand name...Its advertising...

I dunno, I agree with maxopower in not understanding who this video is for. Any gamer under 21 is probably going to associate Epic with Gears of War more than anything. People know whether they like Epic based on those games or not. If Epic makes some new gaming franchise, people will decide if they like that or not. If the rumours about Epic getting out of game dev and doing just engine work, then it makes even less sense to release this video to the public, because Epic is primarily going to be dealing with developers. I don't think we're ever going to reach the point where very many people are buying games purely because they think UE4 is that awesome.

Your engine can be awesome as fuck, but it really doesn't matter all that much unless the games made for it are solid. All the engine bragging in the world didn't save RAGE from being a mediocre game that sold poorly, and adoption of idTech 5 is slim to nonexistent outside of games that are published by id's parent company.

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SharkMan

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What sticks out to me, early on in the video, is how the muzzle flashes illuminate the dirt on the camera lens. Why? Why is a dirty camera a thing now? It obscures the in-game graphics and look like garbage, it doesn't communicate any information to the player or viewer, and it just doesn't make any sense at all.

this. makes no sense, retracts from the immersion as well in my opinion. and to be quite honest really boring video about particle effects.

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xymox

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Edited By xymox

Sprites!

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aceofspudz

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Very interesting, especially if you have experience in this sort of thing.

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kall0

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Edited By kall0

as a game artist this is exciting!!:D

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Adderall_Admiral

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These guys sound so bored.

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TreeTrunk

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awesome!

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The_Nubster

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@pezen: I get what you mean about style and depth, and it certainly looks like a very impressive dirty piece of glass, but I don't think their intended effect was to have p[eople scrunch up their faces and go, "wuh?"

To each their own, though, that's for sure. For example, I love the lens flare in JJ Abram's Star Trek movies because it looks dang cool there, but a lot of people aren't so fond of it.

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ITSSEXYTIME

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Pezen

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@the_nubster: While I agree to a certain extent that, as others said, it doesn't make sense to have the effect on a basically non-existant camera lens. I can't shake the feeling that it does add to the overall stylistic feeling of a scene and in certain instances adds something to the idea of how light illuminates things in a scene. I think we'll see less of those effects when the effects themselves can convey what that effect is trying to get across. Man, I am not even sure I make sense.

Basically, I feel like it adds a sense of depth to light in a scene. But it's also really dumb because it's like watching everything through a dirty piece of glass. I had the same issue looking at The Division when that trailer first hit. It's just pointless.

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John1912

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@maxopower: Everyone..Word of mouth, general buzz, reinforcing brand name...Its advertising...

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roulette1986

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I wouldn't worry about UE4 not taking off - given how many developers used UE3 in the current gen and how Epic don't seem to care about developing their own games at all anymore, I suspect they are pretty comfortable with the prospect of sitting back and making some serious coin farming out engine licenses.

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korwin

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Edited By korwin

Really wish they would put this out in the wild in tech demo form, would like to see how my existing hardware runs the new stuff.

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MaxOpower

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It's not that I don't think it's cool, or interesting. But who the fuck is this video meant for?

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divergence

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I was expecting more of a splash from Epic during this year's E3 since they finally had next-gen consoles to talk about but it seemed really quiet. Do we know what developers are currently licensing and using Unreal 4 in their games? Right now it seems like a very short list.

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BBAlpert

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@meatsim said:

Someone needs to clean off that camera lens.

Yeah, fake lens crud, is kind of silly. I'm kind of into fake film grain, and I'm okay with trying to ape camera lens stuff to some degree, but do directors ever choose to film with a lens caked in grime like that?

If they want that kind of look, I'd imagine they'd either add the effect in post (so they can change their mind if they don't like the effect) or they'd put the dirt onto a clear plate in front of the lens. Those lenses are real goddamned expensive, so you wouldn't want to risk scratching them with grit and dust.

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blacklab

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Tim you are a real electric guy

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Edited By Gildermershina

@meatsim said:

Someone needs to clean off that camera lens.

Yeah, fake lens crud, is kind of silly. I'm kind of into fake film grain, and I'm okay with trying to ape camera lens stuff to some degree, but do directors ever choose to film with a lens caked in grime like that?

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mrsmiley

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man... making video games is hard.

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starerik

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I first read it as "epic break down". :/

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MeatSim

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Someone needs to clean off that camera lens.

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@bbalpert said:

Yes, but how well can it do checkered textures and chrome teapots?

Unreal Engine 7. Be patient.

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DarkbeatDK

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That is too cool

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BrunoTheThird

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I've only just realized that Unreal is, literally, the worst name for a graphics engine ever.

This looks very good to my eyes. Lighting is the most important feature of any engine, for me. Holds so much power when utilized well . . . not that I'm an expert.

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Edited By skyerune

Nice to see Zak doing well after 3dbuzz, used to watch their videos all the time

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I don't mind when stuff gets on the screen during gameplay, but the always there dirt on camera lense effect Battlefield 3 uses is really dumb, should only be there if you're using a uav or something with an actual camera lense.
I like lense flare however, but more for games being over the top, it would fit a Sonic game for example.

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BBAlpert

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Yes, but how well can it do checkered textures and chrome teapots?

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BeachThunder

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I always enjoy seeing stuff like this.

About dirty-lenses, I agree that it never really makes much sense (particularly in FPP games), but it sure looks cool.

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Edited By fobwashed

@the_nubster: I have a love/hate relationship with dirt on camera in the same way I have a love/hate relationship with lense flare in the new Star Trek movie. It's awesome and sorta weird and out of place at the same time

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What sticks out to me, early on in the video, is how the muzzle flashes illuminate the dirt on the camera lens. Why? Why is a dirty camera a thing now? It obscures the in-game graphics and look like garbage, it doesn't communicate any information to the player or viewer, and it just doesn't make any sense at all.