If you’ve been following the news leading up to the IFA conference this week in Berlin, you might think the trade show was meant as a venue for Sony and Samsung product announcements.
As much as Windows 8 has been bashed as a desktop operating system, it’s widely acknowledged that the platform is an excellent interface for tablet devices. And though Windows 8 desktop gaming might end up being a catastrophe, the mobile and tablet gaming experiences are beginning to look very nice. Even Windows 8 Phone gaming might be a blast, as just last week it was announced that the Unity engine will be supported on that platform.
Today Nvidia and Epic Games debuted a demonstration of Epic’s Unreal Engine 3 running on a Windows RT tablet. Windows RT is a version of Windows 8 that will run on ARM devices, such as tablets.
The demonstration seen below shows a short Unreal Engine 3 demo that is running on an Asus Vivo Tab RT, which has a Tegra 3 quad-core processor. The Nvidia labs handler states that the demo is running 30 to 40 frames per second. He also states that the full PC implementation of Unreal Engine 3 is running, meaning that developers should be able to import their games relatively easily.
“The Unreal Engine 3-powered ‘Epic Citadel’ demonstration for Windows RT tablets implements our full DirectX 9 pipeline, with shaders and materials, all running beautifully on Tegra 3,” said Mark Rein, vice president of Epic Games. “By porting the full engine as opposed to a modified mobile version, Nvidia and Epic have made it easy for UE3 developers around the world to bring their best content to Windows RT, Windows 8, and Nvidia’s Tegra 3 processor. Windows RT code is available to licensees from Epic now and we’re excited to see the great games they develop with it.”
It might not be long before gamers see tablet hardware good enough to run the slick-looking Unreal Engine 4, but, for now, the Unreal Engine 3 will certainly be setting a standard for tablet gaming.