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Epic Games has released the latest version of its widely used Unreal Engine with a focus on improved visual fidelity on smart devices.
Headline features inclue refraction effects on mobile, which are automatically taken into account with any shaders already used. This can be used in games built for iPhone 5S and above, as well as a variety of Android devices including Nexus 5, Galaxy Note 4 and Galaxy S6.
Mobile devs can also use the new Material Quality system to tailour their titles to work on lower-end smart devices. Defining low, medium and high quality versions of shaders lets developers selectively disable certain rendering features to improve their game’s performance, and UE4 will automatically detect the best default quality level for the most popular devices.
For virtual reality developers, UE4.10 adds rendering optimisations that improve the speed and performance of experiences built for head-mounted displays. There are also updates for the Motion Controller Components so that players using such devices will experience even less latency.
Other additions include support for Visual Studio 2015, as well as a range of Android game controllers, including the Amazon Fire Game Controller, Amazon Fire TV Remote, Nvidia Shield Controller and Shield Portable.
You can find out more in the full release notes on the Unreal site.
