New Unreal 3 Features trailer from GDC 2009

[Larry_g1s]

Pretty stinkin' amazing.

[BColbourn]

higher res version available here: http://www.gametrailers.com/player/47568.html

[MickyG]

So how does it work? Do you only get access to these new features when you buy a game (with an editor) that is built with the new version?

Or can you somehow patch an older version (say from UT3) to give you these new features?

[csven]

First time I've seen a heat map overlay for a game level. Interesting.

[DSedov]

This is really impressive. I really liked distributed calculations of the light. Now what is the heat map for? I really don't get it.

[samartin]

Not sure but I think the heatmap was used so you can see the line of fire, i.e. see that there is no wall blocking the way to a target for sniping!?

What is the distributed lighting about? Does that mean if you have a network of computers playing this game they all share their CPUs to render the GI?

[csven]

Now what is the heat map for?If it's anything like heat maps for websites, it's basically an overlay showing where most of the activity is occurring. For web pages, this allows the designer to make informed decisions regarding where to put certain things on the page (buttons, clickable headlines, ads, search field, aso). Basically a kind of User Interface design tool.

So, for example, I'm guessing you'd build a level and get people to test it. The overlay would then show you those areas of the map which players aren't using (cold blue) or maybe using too much (hot red). The level designer would then go in and make changes to the geometry or spawn points or power-up placements so that gameplay is better balanced.

This is how I'm guessing it works. Like I said, I've never seen anything like it.

[DSedov]

Not sure but I think the heatmap was used so you can see the line of fire, i.e. see that there is no wall blocking the way to a target for sniping!?

What is the distributed lighting about? Does that mean if you have a network of computers playing this game they all share their CPUs to render the GI?

From this video it seams that distributed GI rendering is done for baking purposes. I highly doubt that GI is rendered in real time. So basically you build a level, by placing objects and lights - and then compute advanced lighting for the whole level by baking it.

[CHRiTTeR]

Yeah, i was thinking the same thing. I think it some kind of way to see how ppl behave in the level.


Pretty clever and uberhandy stuff for level designers

Now the GI is something im also not sure about..
I seriously doubt that its calculated realtime and it looks like it gets baked using the network.

[Cabraswel]

The heatmaps remind me of some images that Bungie showed for Halo 3 levels. They were able to visualize where players died, where they were killed from, and using which weapon(s) using similar maps. It seemed like a really intuitive way to spot design flaws, like overwhelmingly useful sniper nests.

[Reepoman]

Looks pretty nice


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6Z5JgAXWNs

Pretty Sweet :bowdown:

[StevenR]

Heatmaps for games have been around for a while. For example, Valve provides heatmaps for deaths on their TF2 maps.

Example (Dustbowl):
http://www.steampowered.com/status/tf2/death_maps/cp_dustbowl_deaths.jpg

More are available from their stats page:
http://www.steampowered.com/status/tf2/tf2_stats.php

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