Epic Games will be demonstrating new features for Unreal Engine 3, including a lighting solution, game asset search engine and online service architecture at this month's Game Developers Conference, the studio said Monday.

Unreal Lightmass is a new "global illumination solver" that will be making its debut at GDC, a feature that will be made available at no further cost to UE3 licensees. Lightmass allows for "soft shadows with accurate penumbrae; diffuse and specular interreflection; and color bleeding," says Epic.

Also on display will be UE3's new content browser and search engine, a system inspired by Google and Flickr that features thumbnail previews, content tagging and asset collection management.

Epic in addition will be supplementing UE3 with the same back-end that powers Gears of War 2's multiplayer gaming, a system dubbed the "Unreal Master Control Program."

Epic Games China will be on hand at GDC to demonstrate its MMO back-end solution for UE3.

Epic's booth hours at San Francisco's GDC are: Wednesday, March 25, 10:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m., Thursday, March 26, 10:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. and Friday, March 27, 10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m