Developers may already know, but it's worth a recap: Epic has just released version 4.8 of its Unreal Engine. The release notes exceed 80 pages and record almost 200 changes made by the community, but the most important highlights of this version are its improved virtual reality support and a new grass rendering system designed to increase efficiency and performance in open environments.
A matter of perspective
Across the pond they say that only a bad workman blames his tools. Surprisingly, that also applies to the world of computing, especially to high-level resources like game engines. The discussion about the visual quality in the Fallout 4 trailer is still active. Personally, I think it's wrong to blame the engine, and I appreciate Bethesda's honesty on this point, but clearly there are many fans out there who expected a trailer that could melt everything in its path. We also shouldn't lose sight of the fact that there have been incredible conversion examples. Remember the first Half-Life? Valve used the Quake engine as a base, and the results were extraordinary.
Virtual reality and beyond
Fortunately, game engines are increasingly complete, and developers can achieve truly impressive things. The latest example is Unreal Engine 4.8, which we can't wait to see in a game at full capacity. The most important change in Unreal Engine 4.8 is its extended virtual reality support. The new build includes full compatibility with the SteamVR SDK and the HTC Vive headset, with motion control and command assignment. Something similar happens with Sony Morpheus, whose dev kits are now supported at both 60 Hz and 120 Hz, and improves 3D audio playback.
Graphics improvements
On the graphics side, there's a new grass rendering system that draws only the areas in view, adding or removing procedural instances dynamically as the scene demands. Then there's a hierarchical level-of-detail scheme that aims to merge material from distant objects and reduce polygon counts in very large environments (imagine something like Skyrim). Finally, elements like water or windows can now dynamically reflect nearby objects. Epic also decided to release its demo "A Boy and His Kite" shown at the last GDC, and its use will be free and open. A trained eye will surely detect some errors in the images... but we can't deny that Unreal Engine 4 is advancing by leaps and bounds.
