IFA 2012: Epic Games shows Unreal Engine 3 running on Windows 8

Epic Games Inc., in collaboration with NVIDIA, has presented the first public demonstration of Unreal Engine 3 (UE3) running on Windows 8 and Windows RT during Asus’ press conference at the IFA 2012 electronics trade show in Berlin.

A live, real-time demonstration of Epic’s “Epic Citadel” app, which has been released for iOS and Flash, was shown on the Asus Vivo Tab RT, the device formerly known as Tablet 600.

“The Unreal Engine 3-powered ‘Epic Citadel’ demonstration for Windows RT tablets implements our full DirectX 9 pipeline, with shaders and materials, all running beautifully on Tegra 3,” said Mark Rein, vice president of Epic Games. “By porting the full engine as opposed to a modified mobile version, NVIDIA and Epic have made it easy for UE3 developers around the world to bring their best content to Windows RT, Windows 8, and NVIDIA’s Tegra 3 processor. Windows RT code is available to licensees from Epic now and we’re excited to see the great games they develop with it.”

The Unreal Engine 3 running on Windows 8

Epic also announced that Unreal Engine 3 licensees may access Windows RT code at the Unreal Developer Network (UDN).

Epic’s senior technical artist and level designer, Alan Willard, will showcase the Unreal Engine 4 (UE4) “Elemental” real-time demonstration this Saturday, September 1, PAX Prime.

Unreal Engine has been one of the most popular and versatile game engines to be released. It has powered many games, some of the more popular ones being the Gears of War series for the Xbox 360, the BioShock series and the Batman Arkham series.

Besides Fortnite, which will debut Unreal Engine 4, some of the upcoming games using the Engine will be Borderlands 2, BioShock Infinite, and DmC: Devil May Cry.

Epic Games has also confirmed that Fortnite will be released in 2013. According to the company, gameplay revolves around players exploring, foraging and collaborating to build a structure by day, using scavenged materials "to quickly build and renovate structures of varying materials and complexity." At night, players will work together "to defend their prized fortress from the forces of darkness."

At QuakeCon, developer Apogee announced that Rise of the Triad will get a remake in Unreal Engine 3. The new game will also be a first person shooter and will be available for PC later this year. The studio working on the remake is Interceptor Entertainment, a studio based in Denmark that was working on a non-commercial remake of Duke Nukem 3D in Unreal Engine 3 before this. Development of that game was put on hold in 2011.