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macrumors G4
Original poster
Feb 5, 2009
10,703
1
Canada
http://news.cnet.com/8301-27076_3-20000214-248.html

How Epic fit the Unreal Engine into Apple’s iPhone
Wednesday, March 10, 2010 - 11:07 AM EST

"Getting one of the most advanced 3D game engines onto the iPhone has not been an easy task for Epic Games. But they're close to getting into the hands of developers, and gamers alike," Josh Lowensohn reports for CNET. "The makers of the Unreal Engine now say they've kept approximately 90 percent of the code from the PC version, but that process of getting it from PC to Mac, then to the iPhone has been cumbersome."

"The Unreal Engine is what powers many of today's popular PC and console titles like Gears of War, BioShock, Mass Effect, and of course Epic's Unreal Tournament," Lowensohn reports. "What the company builds for its own games, it then licenses out, meaning other publishers can use it on their own titles. The company also has a development kit, which anyone can use (not just big studios), then sell their games for a small fee and a chunk of any revenues. In that regard, it's in the company's benefit to get it ready as something it can sell to other developers, as well as port in-house titles out as iPhone games."

Lowensohn reports, "Epic Games' senior console programmer Josh Adams did show off a working version of UE3 running on an iPhone 3GS, though he would not say when the first crop of games that have been built using it will end up in consumer's hands. The good news at least, is that the tech demo he showed off was running at a solid 24-30 frames per second, a number that could get a bump on the iPad's beefier processor, and whatever hardware improvements Apple bakes into its next iPhone and iPod revisions."
 

NoSmokingBandit

macrumors 68000
Apr 13, 2008
1,579
3
What does that prove? Anyone can get any engine running on the iPhone/Pod/Pad, but that doesnt mean they magically (see what i did there?) have good controls that dont require your fingers to cover a large portion of the screen. It doesnt magically give the user tactile feedback. It doesnt mean anything other than Unreal runs on the i<device>.

If someone could get Halo 3 running on the i<device> at 60 fps with full online capabilities doesnt mean its going to be fun to play. Its going to suffer from the same problem as Chinatown Wars: console controls clumsily fit onto a touch screen.
 

roadbloc

macrumors G3
Aug 24, 2009
8,784
215
UK
What does that prove? Anyone can get any engine running on the iPhone/Pod/Pad, but that doesnt mean they magically (see what i did there?) have good controls that dont require your fingers to cover a large portion of the screen. It doesnt magically give the user tactile feedback. It doesnt mean anything other than Unreal runs on the i<device>.

If someone could get Halo 3 running on the i<device> at 60 fps with full online capabilities doesnt mean its going to be fun to play. Its going to suffer from the same problem as Chinatown Wars: console controls clumsily fit onto a touch screen.

+1. The i(x) will unlikely become a serious gaming device.

The iPad could be, if it had better specs.
 
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