Unreal Engine 4.9 Released With Improved Graphics, Remote Push Notifications and CloudKit Support

[MacRumors]

Epic Games has released Unreal Engine 4.9 with several new features that developers can implement in iPhone and iPad games on the App Store, including efficient dynamic shadows, movable lights and decals, improved in-app purchase functionality, remote push notifications and CloudKit support.

Unreal Engine 4.9 supports dynamic modulated character shadows from directional lights on iOS and Android, while up to four dynamic point lights are supported on each object being illuminated. Unreal Engine 4.9 also ships with a Flurry mobile analytics plugin for iOS out of the box for advertising.

Unreal Engine 4.9 also includes VR motion controller support and performance improvements, experimental DirectX 12 support for Windows 10, a new plugin wizard, improved HTML5 and other deep graphical improvements. The full changelog details other new features for developers.

Article Link: Unreal Engine 4.9 Released With Improved Graphics, Remote Push Notifications and CloudKit Support

 

[vertsix]

This, on the 6s, with the A9 chip with 2GB of RAM and (possibly) two additional GPU cores, would mean an amazing gaming experience.

Unreal engine is truly unreal. Glad they're pushing it to mobile.

 

[lagwagon]

*includes VR motion controller support*

Could this be getting ready for the new AppleTV? With its motion sensing remote.

 

[AngerDanger]

This is amazing and makes me wish—even more—that Epic would release another Epic Citadel like exploration game.

 

[keysofanxiety]

Technology these days is so cool. I remember when Return to Castle Wolfenstein - and after that, Doom 3 - were cutting edge in terms of graphics. And I mean cutting edge, where people were saying games aren't likely to ever look much better. Yet we get visuals better than both of those in something that can fit in our pocket. It's easy to lose significance of how amazing stuff is because we lived during the curve/incremental advancements. But when you really take a step back and consider the advance … wow.

 

[mdridwan47]

Mind-boggling stuff. Truly Unreal.

 

[star-affinity]

No mention about Metal support? Or is it already there?

Edit:

Okay, I see now in the Unreal blog post Metal support is already there since it mentions updates/bugfixes for it:
https://www.unrealengine.com/blog/unreal-engine-49-released

 

[nagromme]

Nice. I'm a Unity user but always an Unreal fan as well.

Don't overlook the 8/24/15 release of Unreal Tournament, either! Runs on Mac, costs zero. A step towards more UT goodness.

 

[SSD-GUY]

Unreal tournament still going strong then.

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

*includes VR motion controller support*

Could this be getting ready for the new AppleTV? With its motion sensing remote.

Motion Sensing Remote == VR?

I feel like VR means something more like the Oculus Rift.

 

[lagwagon]

Motion Sensing Remote == VR?

I feel like VR means something more like the Oculus Rift.

See image (screen shot from within the article) it talks about motion tracking controllers.

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

See image (screen shot from within the article) it talks about motion tracking controllers.

Weird that they fail to mention the WiiMote, WiiMote Plus, Nunchuck, or GamePad (although the GamePad would be kind of weird to have in that abstraction layer... people handle the GamePad more like you would an iOS or Android device, or maybe a headmounted VR like the Oculus Rift.)

 

[AlecZ]

Still waiting for DirectX to get killed off...

 

[Even Longer]

Unreal Engine 4.9 also ships with a Flurry mobile analytics plugin for iOS out of the box for advertising.

Yay, ads and analytics spyware is already built it: "Try the new McFlurry - now with Unreal topping!"

 

[Michael Goff]

Still waiting for DirectX to get killed off...

That's not going to happen.

 

[Parasprite]

Still waiting for DirectX to get killed off...

Considering the sucess of the Xbox, you still got a long wait ahead of you.

 

[Solomani]

*includes VR motion controller support*

Could this be getting ready for the new AppleTV? With its motion sensing remote.

Epic's Unreal at center stage in Apple's September 9 keynote…. that would be…. epic??

 

[Solomani]

Nice. I'm a Unity user but always an Unreal fan as well.

Don't overlook the 8/24/15 release of Unreal Tournament, either! Runs on Mac, costs zero. A step towards more UT goodness.

Umm what?? Where did you read this news about UT 2015 being released for Mac?

 

[chocolaterabbit]

Umm what?? Where did you read this news about UT 2015 being released for Mac?

Wikipedia says it's compatible with Mac, Windows and Linux.

 

[Unami]

why would a figure throw a fuzzy, fading shadow that doesn't fall on the bottom of the collumn but then gets darker and more defined farther up?

unreal engine rocks, but that's just...unreal.

 

[Janichsan]

Umm what?? Where did you read this news about UT 2015 being released for Mac?

It's available for Mac for several months now. But it's still in pre-alpha.

 

[Solomani]

It's available for Mac for several months now. But it's still in pre-alpha.

Ugh pre-alpha, no thanks. lol I'll come back and take interest when it's in late beta maybe.

 

[0098386]

*includes VR motion controller support*

Could this be getting ready for the new AppleTV? With its motion sensing remote.

Or, to support all the consoles and VR tech coming out now (if not already out) for PC.

 

[lagwagon]

Or, to support all the consoles and VR tech coming out now (if not already out) for PC.

Well of course, but Epic being a supporter of apple's Metal, the timing of this and the very soon to be announced AppleTV where one of the main features will be games seems to line up. But yes you're right, obviously not JUST for AppleTV. (And iOS/OS X)

 

[AlecZ]

That's not going to happen.

Yeah, sucks.