Epic games has created something truly amazing for the iPhone. At Apple’s latest press conference they showed off their Unreal game engine running on an iPhone, producing reflections, lighting, and textures that look more in line with what can be expected on an Xbox 360 than an iPhone. A demo of the tech, called Epic Citadel, is now available on the App Store and the results are stunning on an iPhone 4. The user can walk around a medieval castle and marvel as the sun casts realistic shadows on buildings, and trees sway in the wind, slowly dropping their leaves.
The engine can reproduce accurate reflections and shadows.
Epic Citadel is not a full product, and does not feature any real gameplay aside from walking around the environment and taking in the sights. However, hidden behind the lush visuals is a brilliant marketing strategy. By releasing a free demo before the engine is ready, Epic Games can increase developer interest in its platform, and promote the use of its engine to power their upcoming games.
If I was a game developer, I know I would want my game to look like this.
It really is amazing that games on the iPhone/iPod Touch platforms can look so realistic. Graphics like these were unthinkable on a personal computer ten years ago, and now they have already made the leap to portable devices. For more insight into the capabilities of Apple’s ever-shrinking, yet powerful, devices you can read Chang Jie’s Comm296 blog, and if you have an iPhone and would like to see Epic Citadel for yourself you can download it here.
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