Interview with Luis Cataldi (Epic Games) about the Unreal Engine
At the White Nights Moscow 2016 conference, Alexey Pisarevsky, Mobio CEO , spoke with Luis Cataldi, an evangelist for Epic Games.
Epic Games is developing computer games, the most famous are Gears of War and Unreal Tournament. In 1998, the company developed the Unreal Engine.
From the interview you will learn:
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Tell me about your role in Epic Games, what does the evangelist do?
I have a great job. I travel the world and teach people how to work with the Unreal Engine. At one time, Epic needed a person who could communicate with universities, and had a very diverse experience in design and education, and they called me.
What makes the Unreal Engine different from other engines?
Epic has been actively working on the engine for over 20 years. It all started with Unreal 1, which we developed 16-17 years ago. When we worked on the engine and made it a serious tool for developing professional games, more and more people wanted to use our engine to make their games. In 2014, Unreal Engine 4 was released, and Epic opened the source code for everyone. Unreal Engine is a unique professional tool open to the general public, which allows you to reduce the development team to two people. The engine is designed for large studios, as well as for small teams of indie developers, such as the Rocket League, for example.
What games are easier to create on the Unreal Engine?
Now the engine can be used not only for first-person shooters. People develop all sorts of games, so the engine can be used in a variety of areas. For example, the Unreal Engine can be used by programmers involved in architectural visualization, developing virtual training courses for medical professionals, and people involved in shooting and creating entire films.
Difficult to learn how to develop games on the Unreal Engine?
There are many websites and educational resources on the Internet that are constantly updated with content. We do the training materials ourselves and release them on Twitch once a week, every Tuesday. On our YouTube channel they are also there. Lessons are designed for all levels of users - from absolute beginners to people with experience and advanced users. Getting started is easy.
Do developers use the engine for free?
Download the engine, develop a game on it, you can study for free. There is a royalty system: if you developed a game on the Unreal Engine, released and received more than $ 3,000 dollars per quarter per game, you pay 5% of Epic royalties. If these conditions do not suit you, there is always an opportunity to discuss other options for cooperation.
Today you spoke about VR, do you think virtual reality is already mainstream or just an emerging trend?
VR development is a matter of time. Devices are still at an early stage of development, and software is developing rapidly. For example, people like entertainment - VR is perfect for this. From a learning point of view, there are also incredible opportunities for VR. Imagine that you can study the ocean floor not using textbooks and maps, but walking along the ocean floor with a virtual instructor, or learn about Einstein from Einstein himself, from his hologram. There are many options. Now the use of many technologies is limited to equipment or devices. There are mobile VR, but they do not have powerful processors that will allow you to plunge into reality, as it can be done with a PC.
What is the future: a virtual, mixed or augmented reality?
The holy grail will be mixed reality. When we sit here, and we can play virtual chess or talk about a motorcycle and immediately look at it, twist his model in his hands, and then see how he will ride in the snow. If you think about the money that people spend, making a decision to buy a product that they have not fully studied, and how often the decisions they make are wrong after the money is spent, then virtual or augmented reality are excellent helpers in making better solution. These technologies can change the world.
How long will it take to wait for these things to come into use?
We came from one megapixel in cameras to a 16-megapixel camera not overnight. We had to use a 4-megapixel camera first, then an 8-megapixel camera, a 10-megapixel camera, and in the end we got a 16-megapixel camera. Despite the fact that the technology that allows you to create a 16-megapixel camera, existed from the very beginning.
What advice can you give to developers? Where to go, what to read?
I would recommend to watch the video on our YouTube channel . We host a lot of instructional videos, including on VR. There are also other learning resources on YouTube. One of my favorites is the Mitch McCaffrey channel, called Mitch's VR Lab .
He is currently finishing work on a VR book that will be released by Pierce Press in February.
All interviews from the conference can be viewed on our youtube channel.
Epic Games is developing computer games, the most famous are Gears of War and Unreal Tournament. In 1998, the company developed the Unreal Engine.
From the interview you will learn:
')
- What distinguishes the Unreal Engine from other engines;
- What game can be developed on the Unreal Engine and how difficult it is;
- What will win: virtual, mixed or augmented reality?
Tell me about your role in Epic Games, what does the evangelist do?
I have a great job. I travel the world and teach people how to work with the Unreal Engine. At one time, Epic needed a person who could communicate with universities, and had a very diverse experience in design and education, and they called me.
What makes the Unreal Engine different from other engines?
Epic has been actively working on the engine for over 20 years. It all started with Unreal 1, which we developed 16-17 years ago. When we worked on the engine and made it a serious tool for developing professional games, more and more people wanted to use our engine to make their games. In 2014, Unreal Engine 4 was released, and Epic opened the source code for everyone. Unreal Engine is a unique professional tool open to the general public, which allows you to reduce the development team to two people. The engine is designed for large studios, as well as for small teams of indie developers, such as the Rocket League, for example.
What games are easier to create on the Unreal Engine?
Now the engine can be used not only for first-person shooters. People develop all sorts of games, so the engine can be used in a variety of areas. For example, the Unreal Engine can be used by programmers involved in architectural visualization, developing virtual training courses for medical professionals, and people involved in shooting and creating entire films.
Difficult to learn how to develop games on the Unreal Engine?
There are many websites and educational resources on the Internet that are constantly updated with content. We do the training materials ourselves and release them on Twitch once a week, every Tuesday. On our YouTube channel they are also there. Lessons are designed for all levels of users - from absolute beginners to people with experience and advanced users. Getting started is easy.
Do developers use the engine for free?
Download the engine, develop a game on it, you can study for free. There is a royalty system: if you developed a game on the Unreal Engine, released and received more than $ 3,000 dollars per quarter per game, you pay 5% of Epic royalties. If these conditions do not suit you, there is always an opportunity to discuss other options for cooperation.
Today you spoke about VR, do you think virtual reality is already mainstream or just an emerging trend?
VR development is a matter of time. Devices are still at an early stage of development, and software is developing rapidly. For example, people like entertainment - VR is perfect for this. From a learning point of view, there are also incredible opportunities for VR. Imagine that you can study the ocean floor not using textbooks and maps, but walking along the ocean floor with a virtual instructor, or learn about Einstein from Einstein himself, from his hologram. There are many options. Now the use of many technologies is limited to equipment or devices. There are mobile VR, but they do not have powerful processors that will allow you to plunge into reality, as it can be done with a PC.
What is the future: a virtual, mixed or augmented reality?
The holy grail will be mixed reality. When we sit here, and we can play virtual chess or talk about a motorcycle and immediately look at it, twist his model in his hands, and then see how he will ride in the snow. If you think about the money that people spend, making a decision to buy a product that they have not fully studied, and how often the decisions they make are wrong after the money is spent, then virtual or augmented reality are excellent helpers in making better solution. These technologies can change the world.
How long will it take to wait for these things to come into use?
We came from one megapixel in cameras to a 16-megapixel camera not overnight. We had to use a 4-megapixel camera first, then an 8-megapixel camera, a 10-megapixel camera, and in the end we got a 16-megapixel camera. Despite the fact that the technology that allows you to create a 16-megapixel camera, existed from the very beginning.
What advice can you give to developers? Where to go, what to read?
I would recommend to watch the video on our YouTube channel . We host a lot of instructional videos, including on VR. There are also other learning resources on YouTube. One of my favorites is the Mitch McCaffrey channel, called Mitch's VR Lab .
He is currently finishing work on a VR book that will be released by Pierce Press in February.
All interviews from the conference can be viewed on our youtube channel.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/316972/
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