Free version of Unreal Engine 3 released News • News • Eurogamer.net

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Epic aims to get students' cogs turning.

A free, standalone version of Unreal Engine 3 has been released by Epic Games, giving aspiring developers and professionals alike the chance to use Epic's 3D engine technology for free.

The Unreal Development Kit can be downloaded by anyone and gives users access to the game engine technology, Unreal Editor, Unreal Content Browser, UnrealScript and other tools (a full feature-set is listed on the website).

The software will be free for non-commercial and educational users, although terms will apply to developers making games commercially.

"I'm excited about the possibilities the Unreal Development Kit opens to those who are looking to get into the game business but don't otherwise have the means to acquire world-class technology and tools like ours," said Mark Rein, VP of Epic.

"UDK is Unreal Engine 3, which has been used to create games in a wide range of genres, as well as military simulations, 3D architectural walkthroughs, animated movies and more. Users are only limited by their imaginations."

Epic will support the software with regular upgraded builds. While the kit is initially only for use on PC, the company says console support is under consideration.

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Comments (22) Latest comment 2 years ago

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Retroid #1 2 years ago

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Cogs.

I see what you did, there.
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reelbigkris #2 2 years ago

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My experience of the engine will be:

1. download
2. think of some interesting game mechanics
3. get fed up of coding
4. turn off and never use again

Good news for those with the drive to get involved within the games industry however. everyone can be a code monkey
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Pastici #3 2 years ago

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May lead to a few decent freeware games .
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Fab4 #4 2 years ago

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"Users are only limited by their imaginations"

They needn't have bothered then
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spekkeh #5 2 years ago

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Cool! Might give it a go. Can't see myself leave Valve's Source SDK though.
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skillian #6 2 years ago

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I'm hearing rumours it's a release of Unreal Engine 3 for use by consumers, rather than developers.

[link url=http://www.eurogamer.net/ar ticles/epic-teases-mysterious-unreal-reveal#comment1327165
]http://ww w.eurogamer.net/articles/epic-t...[/link]

Ooh, I called it two weeks ago. I rock.

Edited by 1 at 05/11/09 @ 15:05
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Retroid #7 2 years ago

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* Bald space marines not included
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MarkRein #8 2 years ago

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Skillian --> it isn't just for consumers the whole idea of UDK is that you can now be a professional game developer and build an Unreal Engine 3 game (for PC at least) even if you otherwise couldn't afford an Unreal Engine 3 license. It is important to note that this isn't a "consumer version" but rather the most up-to-date version of the engine and tools that we have and we plan to keep it up-to-date as well.
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MarkRein #9 2 years ago

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20charactersmax--> And several shades of blue -- check out "Whizzle" a cute little scrolling puzzle game made, with the UDK, by our friends at Psyonix.

You can download it at [link url=http://www.u dk.com/showcase-whizzle.html
]http://www.u dk.com/showcase-whizzle.html
[/link]

You should also watch their outstanding developer diary at http://www.udk. com/whizzle_diary.html
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Salaminizer #10 2 years ago

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the real Mark Rein?

I think it's great that this will let UT3 modders release their mods as stand-alone games. a lot of UT2k4 mods would have benefitted from this "back then"

Edited by 1 at 05/11/09 @ 15:27
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skillian #11 2 years ago

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Quick, ask him for his signature (it's a bunny he's helping to achieve world domination).
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Eraser #12 2 years ago

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Wow this is pretty cool. I think it's a very bold step for a company to do something like this. id Software has a history of doing this with all their game engines and quite some amazing things came out of that. I can only applaud that Epic is following suit.
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mingster #13 2 years ago

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awesome.. i feel embassed knowing Mark Rein might have been reading the comments section on this site though.
(Little tip.. click ignore Pro_gamer ASAP)
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MarkRein #14 2 years ago

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Salaminizer --> Yup, the real me. I post occasionally here.
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Skurmedel #15 2 years ago

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How hardcore do you have to be to use this? I only have experience from XNA and SDL.

I take it physics support is built in? Edit: Stupid question when it says on the page, lol.

Edited by 1 at 05/11/09 @ 16:50
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seasidebaz #16 2 years ago

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Limited only by imagination? Awesome!

I'm going to make a game where you have... a gun.... or something?
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sneetch #17 2 years ago

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@seasidebaz

Question: will there be things to shoot with that gun?

If so I think we may have had the same idea. I'm gonna go patent mine quickly.
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Cappy #18 2 years ago

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I'd love to be able to use something like Unreal, it's too high level for me though I think.

I wish there was something between the frustrating limitations of something like LittleBigPlanet and a full blown development environment.

Edited by 1 at 05/11/09 @ 20:52
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Salaminizer #19 2 years ago

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@Cappy:

I'd recommend you Multimedia Fusion 2 then. Although most of the games come from really amateur guys, you can find good stuff like Eternal Daughter, that was made by the same guy that recently made Aquaria. I suppose in MMF2 is the same, but in Multimedia Fusion 1 you could even write extensions in C++ if there was something you needed (and you knew C++), of course. you could check out The Daily Click (yes, the URL is correct) if you're interested in it. MMF2 itself was made by Clickteam
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davisorle #20 2 years ago

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Great cause i was honestly thinking of it being usefull to me the past week since i have been working extensivly on 3Ds Max so I will for sure have a go
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Cappy #21 2 years ago

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Thanks Salaminizer, I'll take a look at that.
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M4RV #22 2 years ago

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Recommended for Content Development:

(...)

8 GB System RAM

^ ^ ^ ^

* screaming and thrashing *

Why God, Why...?!?!
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