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Unreal Development Kit Goes Free

Tom Ivan's picture

By Tom Ivan

November 5, 2009

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Epic Games has released a free edition of Unreal Engine 3 for educational and non-commercial use.

The Unreal Development Kit gives users access to the 3D game engine technology, Unreal Editor, Unreal Content Browser, UnrealScript, Unreal Matinee, Unreal Cascade and other tools, which are detailed here.

Previously, non-commercial access to the Unreal Engine 3 toolset had been available only through the PC versions of games such as Unreal Tournament 3 and the Gears Of War series.

Epic said that the UDK contains all the most recently added Unreal features and enhancements, and that it will release ongoing, upgraded builds for free.

“I’m excited about the possibilities the Unreal Development Kit opens to those who are looking to get into the game business but don’t otherwise have the means to acquire world-class technology and tools like ours,” said Mark Rein, vice president of Epic Games.

“UDK is Unreal Engine 3, which has been used to create games in a wide range of genres, as well as military simulations, 3D architectural walkthroughs, animated movies and more. Users are only limited by their imaginations."

Ben_Lathwell's picture
On November 9th Ben_Lathwell said:

Has anyone got this to work, so far i have had an error at the final stage of installation, then i re-downloaded it and it says its not a win32 application!!

Rob_Jackson's picture
On November 6th Rob_Jackson said:

Well I would like to congratulate Epic for this move. Design software in the 3D environment has outstripped inflation by hundreds if not thousands of percent over the past few years, and I truly hope this move sends a message to other 3D content software developers.

Futurist's picture
On November 5th Futurist said:

Seems that this is more of a response to the announcement of Unity going free. They are not on the same level in terms of capabilities (UE3 >> Unity3D), but Unity adoption has been exploding in iPhone space and keeps on growing in desktop.

toadwarrior's picture
On November 5th toadwarrior said:

The Unreal engine has always been a bit shit imo and I think this is just a way to lure people into using it and creating more demand for their kit as developers will find it easier to find people with Unreal Engine experience.

PhoenixMDK's picture
On November 6th PhoenixMDK said:

There's obviously an element of taste in engine quality so your view is entirely valid, but the toolset and development support from Epic has been particularly strong which is a large part of why the Unreal Engine is SO prevalent in the current generation. If anything the chief criticism against the engine has been the "samey" look of current gen games because they're all using the same tech! So Epic are hardly trying to lure people into using a substandard engine that people previously were ignoring.

edshot's picture
On November 9th edshot said:

I haven't played Borderlands, so I have to ask you peoples how different does it look compared to Gears 1 + 2, and Batman: Arkham Asylum? They were all done using the Unreal Editor 3 and from the screens of Borderlands I've seen, it doesn't much look like any of them.

I don't think there's any reason for the games to look samey just because they're all using UE3 : the artists just need to tone down those plasticky spec maps, lol.

In truth, I find it to be an awesome editor: (relatively) stable, very user-friendly and has an awesome material editor where you can create some amazing fx. There is no programming involved for most stuff, and both the material editor and kismet uses a visual scripting tool where you link nodes. You can, very quickly produce some really pro stuff.

For me personally, it's much more user-friendly than the GECK editor for Fallout 3 or even the Hammer for Half-Life, but that's just personal preference. I haven't had chance to use the awesome Sandbox editor that comes with Crysis. But from what I've seen the terrain editor in that, with the ability to manipulate roads on a spline could have one over on UE3.

I have to disagree with toadwarrior, I think the only reason people will be 'lured' to the UE3, is reliability, stability and the speed and ease at which you can achieve excellent results.

BTW, the PC version of Gears comes with a UE3 editor that is identical to the Unreal Tournament version, with one difference: it has a button where you can create cover points in your level, enabling the character to duck behind your geometry, just like the real game.

Peter_Pesic's picture
On November 9th Peter_Pesic said:

Borderlands looks nothing like any other Unreal Engine 3 game, the only clue would be the texture pop in (which seems to be handled better than in most titles). Mass Effect is also an Unreal Engine game, that you'd be hard pressed to identify cold as an UE game (except for, again the texture pop in, which supposedly Mass Effect 2 will have eliminated).

nobodyspeshul's picture
On November 6th nobodyspeshul said:

Would you mind showing us YOUR engine then? UE is not shit, it was quite good for its time.

Ben_Lathwell's picture
On November 5th Ben_Lathwell said:

Its a good oppurtunity for anyone wanting to break into industry. Good or bad the Unreal Engine is popular with developers, so people with experience using it are much more employable

mentor07825's picture
On November 5th mentor07825 said:

I have a question, what's the difference between this UDK and the one provided to us for those who bought the games?

I have Unreal Tournament 3 with the UDK supplied with it, but I'd like to know if there are differences.