NCsoft buys unreal 3 engine.. could it be?

According to the Dutch gaming website http://www.insidegamer.nl , NCsoft bought 2 licenses of the Unreal 3 engine, most probably meant to use for 2 new MMORPGs.
( http://www.insidegamer.nl/bedrijf/ui...nties-aan.html )


Anyway, this could mean that GW2 will run on the U3 engine. It would be great if that was the case! (because 1. Unreal 3 engine looks beautiful and 2. I can run all the games using this engine )

Of course, the chance is also big that these 2 licenses are meant for 2 other games .

anet makes gw not ncsoft . ..

NCsoft owns Anet


U3 runs on most standard systems now. By the time GW2 comes out (I'd bet end 2009..) , U3 is old =P

One of the main hallmarks of GW is that it runs on a proprietary and unique game engine. I'm sure there will be some games made from those licenses, but not GW2.

ncsoft is a game publishing company. anet is a subsidiary of ncsoft but they are the developers of guild wars not ncsoft. if anet was going to use the unreal 3 engine for one of the games they were designing, they would be the ones to purchase it. its just like with city of heroes where cryptic sold the rights to ncsoft so that ncsoft could continue developing city of heroes

I would imagine they have started work on the engine already and are using a modified GW one for GW2, so I suspect this is for something else.

They said in an interview GW2 would be using an updated GW engine. Considering they are only just announcing this now, GW2 would probably bee too far in development to swap engines. Swapping engines is a huge deal.

Exactly. GW1 has *superb* graphic engine. I mean, as programmer i am always in awe when i see it in action on my desperately underspecced system.

It makes no sense to get Unreal 3 engine bloat instead.

I've seen this story on a couple of game related sites and it states that they are licensing the Unreal 3 engine for 2 unannounced MMO projects. GW2 has been announced already.

I think 2 NEW mmo's was the key there...

I seriously doubt that the U3 engine would bring anything to GW. Too power-hungry, not as art-friendly (it's subjective but that's my feeling), and why would Anet pay for something that they can have free?

Superb? It's very outdated. No Z-Axis, no physics (ok, that's not the graphics department), static lights etc.

Anyway, they are using a heavily modified GW-Engine (as they stated) if not a new one built from scratch (what I hope). Definitely not the UE3.

Well, in 2009 you should expect people having better gaming systems than what they had in 2005, even though most mainstream PCs are still shipped with pretty bad graphics cards (but it haz quadkoar!!!11).

Having to resize everything down is what makes developing for the PC so unattractive.

All you mention has nothing to do with the artistic side of the GW graphics. Look here at what we're talking about:
http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...php?t=10271540

GW2 will have all these fancy 3d features, but I seriously doubt that jumping or bouncing in two different manners depending on if it's on rock or monsters will bring any intrinsic artistic qualities. It's a desirable feature (love Half-life 2!) but not at the expense of bringing up seriously the minimum specs.

I appreciate very much that Anet is very conservative on these graphics decisions, allowing almost everyone to run the game even with very modest configurations (and I mean modest, no dedicated graphics card or even much video memory). And being able to draw such superbs landscapes and monsters (see the Guess That Scenery™ thread) without monthly fees is an unbelievable feat!

No, a lot of GW players dont expect that because they're casual players and don't care if their graphics engine is uptodate. Their gameplay is more important than their knowledge of videogames (no disrespect for pro/hardcore-gamers) and the reason why they're still successful is that the core of the game is still good, but for no monthly fee you'd expect that the "shell" is not uptodate.

I find GW as attractive as when I started playing it 18 months ago, actually even more given that I'm now making a lot of things I couldn't do before! (and soon hopefully I'll get to play it on a desktop rather than my laptops and the graphics will get awesome!)

Lineage 2 is Unreal Engine.

The artists are very talented, no single doubt about that, however they are limited in their possibilities. Take a look at the artwork. Why would you not want them to have more flexibility in how they implement their visions when they can have it via a much more powerful developing platform?

Physics are very underestimated. They can make a world breathe.

It's an MMO (yes, yes CORPG, shh!), of course you'd want to target a greater audience. They know they cannot utilize the CryEngine (a MMO using it is coming though) and keep most players out.

Graphics sells, always does and Guild Wars didn't dissapoint there (besides offering great performance for its looks). It's why it became a contest of dressing your own doll better than all the others.

I remember this being mentioned about GW2, but it may have been a wishful thinking on our part. Anyway, GW has among the most stunning and beautiful graphical experience out there. It's not only due to the artistic team but the dev team too, I am personally still wandering around in these beautiful landscapes as I was doing 18 months ago (I was doing it yesterday in the Togo BMP mission).

It comes at a high cost. My half-life 2 could run ok on my laptop and I was so happy, it's a unique experience (and one of the first to real have this sense of physical interaction). But I can't play Episode 1 as it's way too demanding for my computers. (in your own words, this world is suffocating )

When PPUs (Physics Processor Units) will be as cheap as GPUs are nowadays, it'll be mainstream. Until then, you need high-end computer specs and, as I said, Anet is not aiming at that.

Tbh, I was amazed from the very beginning at how smoothly the game would run on my original computer (a small HP slimline desktop that runs slowly). As a computer scientist, I highly appreciate the technical feat, they've got A-star quality devs that remind me of the time when games had small executables (doom, duke nukem, welcome to the scene!) who would "do the trick nicely". Now videogames are like mammoth (look at the Xbox and PS3 specs, it's mad!) instead of focusing on the gameplay.

last time i read something 'bout the engine which would be used they stated that they will be using a highly modified gw engine which would support all the new shaders, physics,... so no Unreal 3 engine, NCsoft has enough own projects like dungeon runners or exteel, im quite sure they r working on new mmo's alrdy

Looking at your other thread, they are rightfully honored for their beautiful work. Somehow I doubt a lot players really stop by and watch the scenery. Waste of time you'd need for titles.

Well, PPUs are history, we'll have GPGPUs for that.

I agree, the performance was really astonishing and I strongly believe they'll surprise us again with GW2. It's what I miss from so many developers: optimization.

Unfortunately the DX10 part will most likely just be a bonus. It's where you could get even more performance advantages.

I personally do get the feeling that a lot of people are still very aware of this dimension of the game, even if it's not always the first thing they'll talk about on forums.

Well history for silicon companies is present for most of us, so yeah sure we could talk about virtualised space configurations or multicore execution environment but I doubt that it'll have a significant impact here .

Anyway, as I said before, UT3 engine does not make sense to Anet who needs to keep control on the costs to provide us with a no-monthly-fee. So forget it.