Kotaku: Tim Sweeney

"Gears of War 2 Will Have New Lighting" (Swell)

Brian Ashcraft — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 07:00:44 MDT

The Gears of War 2 ~~Cole~~ hype train is in full effect. People are hanging on every Epic word. Even really BORING things like Epic found Tim Sweeney saying "The next Gears of War game will have improved physics features and new lighting and rendering features."

Better physics and new lighting? Holy shit, yes, yes, YES. Sweeney did offer up some more meaty clues as to what's in store for the Unreal Engine 3, and thus quite possibly Gears of War 2. But we're extrapolating! Guessing! About the Unreal Engine 3's future, says Sweeney:

We can do more with networking to get more players in these games and get more complex physics working. Right now we have fairly complex vehicle interactions, but there's a lot more that can be done there. There's even more that can be done with animation—further extending the integration between the physics and the hardcode animation. We have quite an extensive system for that, but there's a lot of game-specific work that can be done for improving human characters and their interactions with the environment

Elsewhere, Sweeney says that Gears 2 won't be in shown in demo form at the upcoming New York Comic-Con. Bummer! But remember kids, he did say better physics and new lighting. That should hold you over.

Epic Talks Gears 2 [Next Generation] [Pic]

GDC Gears of War 2 Vids Available on XBLM

fdemarco — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 12:40:00 MDT

For those of you that missed out on GDC and Cliffy B's epic entrance (see what I did there?) you can now experience the magic for yourselves on Xbox LIVE Marketplace. In two separate videos (available for free), Epic Games President Mike Capps and Lead Designer Cliff Bleszinski tell you all about what you can expect from the fllow up to one of the biggest games of 2006. Also available is a video documenting the technical aspects and features of the updates Unreal 3 engine by Epic Games CEO and Technical Director Tim Sweeney. All three clips are available now for your downloading and viewing pleasure.

Unreal Engine 4 Targeting Consoles, Not PCs

Luke Plunkett — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 21:20:00 MDT

Yeah, the Unreal Engine was once synonomous with cutting-edge PC graphics tech. Once. But in the future? With Unreal Engine 4.0? Well, it's going to be geared towards consoles, not the PC. So says Epic boss Tim Sweeney:

There is a long life ahead for Unreal Engine 3. Version 4 will exclusively target the next console generation, Microsoft's successor for the Xbox 360, Sony's successor for the Playstation 3 - and if Nintendo ships a machine with similar hardware specs, then that also. PCs will follow after that.

Exclusively targeting consoles? PCs following after a Nintendo console? Egads. Epic and PC fanboys, let me get my boat and a paddle together before your salty tears cry me a river.
Tim Sweeney, Part 3: Unreal Engine 4.0 aims at next-gen console war [TG Daily]

Epic: Why We Need A PC Gaming Alliance

Luke Plunkett — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 20:20:00 MDT

Why do we need a PC gaming alliance again? Oh, this is why. Epic boss Tim Sweeney, speaking with tgdaily, has outlined just why his company have signed up to the industry super-friends, and also notes the challenges the group face in returning a little swagger to the brand that is PC gaming:

Retail stores like Best Buy are selling PC games and PCs with integrated graphics at the same time and they are not talking about the difference [to more capable gaming PCs]. Those machines are good for e-mail, web browsing, watching video. But as far as games go, those machines are just not adequate. It is no surprise that retail PC sales suffer from that.

In other words, they'll probably be spending most of their time advertising and informing, as they educate the masses on why Intel integrated graphics processors are a 2-pound bag of horseshit.
Unreal creator Tim Sweeney: "PCs are good for anything, just not games" [tgdaily]

Video Card Buying Advice From Someone Who Matters

Mark Wilson — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 10:40:39 MDT

You don't listen to us. It's OK, we've known for some time now. As long as our moms are reading and appreciating our cock allusions as much as we are, things are going pretty well on the old Kotaku. But if you plan on buying a videocard for your computer in the near future, you should listen to Epic's Tim Sweeney, the number cruncher behind the Unreal 3 engine. Here's his advice:

In Unreal Tournament 3 and Gears of War for PC, there is a significant gain in having 512MB of video memory rather than 256MB. So, first and foremost, get at least a 512MB card if you can afford it. If you haven't maxed out your budget, then go for the maximum single-card performance that doesn't require extreme cooling, e.g. buy an entry-level GeForce 8800 over a GeForce 8600.

Remember, while the rule applies to these two games specifically, Sweeney knows what's in store for gamers as the engine is exploited more and more. So pony up, lay down the cash and buy that 512MB card during your next PC upgrade round.

And when Dell recommends the upgrade, you can be like, "Who the @*&$ do you think you are, Tim Sweeney? And yes...I would like the upgrade."

Oh, and for what it's worth, I've heard about games during the past year where they were testing 2GB videocards for future compatibility. Trust me, once these devs get the memory, they ain't handing it back.

Tim Sweeney says memory is all you need [via gamingtoday]

Gears Teaches Unreal Tournament 3

Brian Ashcraft — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 22:00:11 MDT

Game developer Epic learned loads from its smash hit Gears of War. Company founder Tim Sweeney says that the upcoming Unreal Tournament 3 will take that knowledge and put it into practice. And what did Epic learn? Sweeney explains:

The Gears of War experience on Xbox 360 taught us to optimize for multi-core, and to improve the low-level performance of the key engine systems. This has carried over very well to PC... Also, the 360 work we did resulted in an engine that also runs well on low-end and mid-range PCs.

So we're pretty much saying the Xbox 360 is a low-end to mid-range PC? Back-handed compliments all around! Brian Ashcraft

Unreal Learns From Gears [Eurogamer]