Early Predictions for Unreal Features to be unveiled at GDC 2017

[kelfire (Kiệt Minh Khổng)]

At every GDC, Epic Games unveiled something big. At GDC 2015, they unveiled the Kite Demo and the free-to-use model. At GDC 2016, they unveiled Sequencer. So post your guess on what big feature is going to be unveiled this year. I’ll post some of my own predictions.

**Prediction

**

1. C#/Mono support

2. ​​Xamarin was bought last year by Microsoft and they went open source. Xamarin could have release the C# version of UE4 5-6 months ago if they wanted to. My guess is that they been working with Epic in getting first class scripting support (same level as Blueprint) into UE4. Chance: High

3. First Look at Niagra (VFX Editor)

4. Niagra is slated to be work on until April according to Trello. This should be in time for the 4.16 release in June/July? I am guessing we get to see some small example of what Niagra would look like and what it could do. Chance: High

5. ART version 2

6. ART version 2 was talked about as early as June 2014. Recently Epic has Aaron.Carlisle

taking over support for ARTv1, and Jeremy Ernst working on ARTv2. I am guessing we get to see some ARTv2 at GDC. Chance: High

1. Destruction 2.0

2. Epic upgrade Physx to 3.4 in 4.13. One of the feature of Physx 3.4 is GRB which support simulating large amount of rigid body (10,000+) which fits with a destruction system. Chance: Medium

3. In-Editor Animation Editing

4. According to this quote from “UE4 Animation and Physics Technical Showcase”,

As part of this showcase, 3Lateral will present Gene Splicer, its novel approach to parametric modeling of avatars embedded in Unreal Engine, which is both a production and runtime solution for democratizing high end character rigs. Gene Splicer evaluates the appropriate rig for the animated avatar created by user, and this all happens in milliseconds.

1. I am guessing 3Lateral might be offering an in-editor rigging tool as a plugin similar to Simplygon. Chance: Medium

2. Character Hair Content Example in Substance Designer format

3. Epic has been intending to release a better example for the character rendering skin/eye/hair. I am guessing they are going to release it in a Substance format. Chance: Low

[Zeblote]

GDC demos for the new audio engine and something about physics and animation are mentioned in this commit: https://github.com/EpicGames/UnrealEngine/commit/03d64a49e83e81b8d6f5594d99e0a35cda52f0f0

[John_Alcatraz]

I can’t say that your predictions are wrong yet, but your order is definitely wrong.

C#/Mono support officially from Epic is the unlikeliest thing to happen, ever. There is 0 need for C# in UE4. You have BP for those who don’t like code, and C++ for those who like code. Anything in between in unnecessary and maintaining that would distract Epic from more important stuff.

Destruction 2.0 does not have a chance of Medium, but 0. Epic is not currently working on destruction, it’s backlogged.

They can show Niagara, the code is in master and everyone can take a look and use it already. So nothing would stop them from talking about it.

[anonymous_user_2693c2e4]

@Zeblote;668151

something about physics and animation

NVIDIA will be presenting a talk at GDC, called “NVIDIA GameWorks Animation Tech in Unreal Engine 4”, covering NvCloth (which I believe is a new version of APEX Clothing) and PhysX Immediate Mode (which is a new feature of PhysX 3.4)

From the PhysX RN

• New “immediate mode” API has been added. This exposes access to the low-level contact generation and constraint solver, which allows the application to use these PhysX low-level components to perform its own simulations without needing to populate and simulate a PxScene.

[BrUnO_XaVIeR]

They gonna present the “Make MMO Button” right next to the Compile button on toolbar.

Seriously now, there’s chances we see they talk about APEX Cloth authoring tools inside the Editor built-in, no more using 3dsMax or Maya to generate cloth simulations.

[Zeblote]

@Zogrim;668356

From the PhysX RN

• New “immediate mode” API has been added. This exposes access to the low-level contact generation and constraint solver, which allows the application to use these PhysX low-level components to perform its own simulations without needing to populate and simulate a PxScene.

Very interesting. But for what would you actually use this?

[anonymous_user_2693c2e4]

@Zeblote;668469

Very interesting. But for what would you actually use this?

It seems it is gonna be used for physics based animations, quoting Epic own GDC announcement:

Come explore how UE4’s new Immediate Mode Physics enables developers to add more physics-based mayhem to their worlds than ever before! See how you can simulate dozens of ragdolls simultaneously, how to blend physics and animation together, and how this new physics feature can make it all possible while maintaining 60fps on both PC and consoles!

[BrUnO_XaVIeR]

It is pretty much like the technology developed by NaturalMotion, Euphoria:

Euphoria vs. Ragdoll Demonstration

[BrUnO_XaVIeR]

3Lateral will show some facial rigging stuff… Judging by their Vimeo profile, that is what they do:

3Lateral

[iniside]

Not a prediction, but I hope we will more things from Paragon integrated into engine, related to Distance Matching (;.

[AE_3DFX]

@John Alcatraz;668176

I can’t say that your predictions are wrong yet, but your order is definitely wrong.

C#/Mono support officially from Epic is the unlikeliest thing to happen, ever. There is 0 need for C# in UE4. You have BP for those who don’t like code, and C++ for those who like code. Anything in between in unnecessary and maintaining that would distract Epic from more important stuff.

Destruction 2.0 does not have a chance of Medium, but 0. Epic is not currently working on destruction, it’s backlogged.

They can show Niagara, the code is in master and everyone can take a look and use it already. So nothing would stop them from talking about it.

I agree that BP is best for non-coders and Epic should focus more on Blueprints in future and keep C# requirement optional not forced requirement.

[mlindborg]

Game Developers Conference (GDC)

Seems like quite a lot of stuff.

[BrUnO_XaVIeR]

Almost there now… :o
This year’s GDC gonna be cool

[HavocX]

#1 is almost zero. Xamarin has publicly stated that their goal is a plugin. It is delayed because they need some changes made in core UE to have it work they way they want.

[Stephen_Ellis]

The suspense is terrible. I hope it lasts.

• Willy Wonka

:o

[BrUnO_XaVIeR]

We are the music makers… and we are the dreamers of the dreams.

[GameDevelooper]

so nothing new

[The_Distiller]

Overall very disappointing in regards to rendering tech advancements! Animation and sound got some nice updates though.

[kelfire (Kiệt Minh Khổng)]

Welp way off with my predictions, but super excited about some of the new features. Some of the AR technology from the business sector looks pretty cool.

Some Features that I like

1. Geometry 2.0 ish. Being able to model inside of Unreal with Opensubdiv support is awesome. The workflow that they show is pretty amazing especially for prototyping.
2. Roborecall being a mod is big. I want to see how they put those physical animations together. The physic in that game looks magical for me.

Summary of my predictions

1. C#/Mono: Nope, not happening any time soon.

2. Niaga : Nope, didn’t see anything.

3. ARTv2: Didn’t see anything, but they do have a GDC presentation about rigging later on.

4. Destruction 2.0: Nope, didn’t see anything. I saw Nvidia Gamework DX12 has some really interesting releases. Link https://developer.nvidia.com/gameworks-dx12-released-gdc

5. Flex 1.1: Uses DirectCompute meaning it can work on AMD video card too?

6. GPU Rigid Bodies is a plug-in to Physx 3.4. Does that mean Nvidia is going to include that into UE4 as a plug-in similar to how we have Ansel as a plug-in? Would be cool.

7. Nvidia Blast 1.0: An updated workflow for the current APEX Destruction?

Blast enables pervasive destruction. Sitting on top of PhysX, Blast makes it easy for artists and game designers to add destruction to their games.

1. NvCloth: Something that is going to be in UE4, it is already on Trello board.
2. Wavework 1.7: Support DirectCompute. Could mean it works on AMD video card now?

[BrUnO_XaVIeR]

They are going to talk about physics driven animation in 20 minutes.

Edit:
Oh nope, I’m mistaken; I think it’s audio engine turn now.