Unreal Engine 3 will power next-gen games for Apple's Mac OS X
The game developer announced the release of its September 2011 UDK Beta, the free edition of its Unreal Engine 3, earlier this week.
"The development process is virtually identical for games to be run on the Mac platform, but the packaging and deployment process does require some additional steps," the company wrote on its website.
Epic touted the dramatic increase to "every UDK game's potential user base" that will come as a result of the forthcoming Mac support. The latest beta is available at udk.com/download.
The new UDK Beta also includes multi-display support for iOS, via either HDMI cable or Apple's AirPlay standard. After seeing strong interest in its "Epic Citadel" tech demo, the developer released a version of the UDK adding support for iOS last year, with one executive for the company calling it Apple's mobile OS "the priority for now."
The finished product from the original iOS tech demo, "Infinity Blade," went on to become an instant hit, bringing in millions of dollars in revenue for the company. Former Apple CEO Steve Jobs has called the iOS version of the Unreal 3D environment "remarkable."
"Infinity Blade has been a runaway hit with customers around the world and we couldn't be more excited about our success on iOS devices," Epic Games vice president and co-founder Mark Rein said in July.
26 Comments
Apple is not going to start taking Mac gaming seriously until we stop calling 4+ year old technology "next generation" when it finally comes natively to OS X. The stakes aren't as high as when you couldn't Boot Camp, but it's pathetic that we still have to do this now that our hardware is comparable. Now, if only Apple would start using upgradeable GPU's in iMacs.
Now, if only Apple would start using upgradeable GPU's in iMacs.
I hope this will lead to Apple extending more options to Mac gamers, and thus offer more GPU upgrade options (esp. on the not higher-end model, e.g. maybe on the 21" iMac, and not only the 27").
It's not necessarily as crazy as it sounds. Alienware has done it in laptops for years, and it's really the only component that seriously holds back the iMac as a serious gaming machine. Most people want their desktops to last for more than a few years, and it sucks when your brand new $1500 iMac comes with a last-generation graphics chip that you're stuck with for the life of the product.
I know I'm a pretty niche user, but I would love to not have to maintain a separate Windows tower for gaming.
when are they going to make more games based on infinity blade??