“BioWare chose UE3 for the Mass Effect because they wanted to make an immersive shooter,” says Rein
The next installment of the Mass Effect trilogy will be powered by Unreal Engine 3, Epic vice-president Mark Rein has said.
The popular Unreal Engine 3 has built up a sizable base of licensing support since its 2006 release. The engine stands apart from its predessesors by way of numerous capability advances, including renderer support covering several complex techniques like HDRR, per-pixel lighting and dynamic shadows.
After using it for the first two Mass Effect titles, UE3’s impressive tech has convinced Canadian studio BioWare to use it as a base for the upcoming Mass Effect 3.
“BioWare chose UE3 for the Mass Effect trilogy because they wanted to make an immersive third-person perspective shooter game with sci-fi environments,” Epic VP Mark Rein told Develop, in a feature outlining the use of the Unreal Engine in Mass Effect 2.
Elsewhere in the feature, senior vice president of EA Partners David DeMartini agreed that BioWare’s work with Unreal Engine 3 shows off the technology’s extensibility.
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“Unreal Engine 3 ships with the tools and technologies we trust for making triple-A games,” he said.
“We have a great working relationship with Epic from both the development and licensee perspective, and we’re continually pleased with how they keep their game engine technology competitive, which helps us deliver the excellent quality games that EA customers expect.”
Let's see... spend more millions and start from scratch, taking years to finish the game... or reuse an existing engine and save both money and time? Hmm... hard choice... can't decide...
I hope they don't use unreal for ME:3. I could deal with the extra wait for Bioware to re-build in the new engine. I've played through ME:3 five times now and its painfully obvious that unreal is dated. Textures still pop, collision between objects is horrible, there's clipping in just about every cutscene, and character models other than facial features look like complete garbage. I love the Mass Effect series and wish it to be of the highest quality for it's conclusion and not be held back by a dated engine.
I think if they use it properly, there's no reason why the UE3 engine should hold ME3 back. I've played ME1 and ME2, and I can tell that there's still more quality to pull from the engine. I think just about the only problem I ever noticed in ME3 other than the slightly static faces was part of Miranda's collar disappearing inside her neck during certain cutscenes. Bring on ME3! Screw every last bit of power from UE3!
