UDK March update with some familiar art thrown in, congrats Tor Frick

Epic Games Releases March 2012 Unreal Development Kit Beta

Epic Games, Inc. has released the March 2012 Unreal Development Kit Beta, the latest version of the free edition of Unreal Engine 3 that provides access to the award-winning 3D game engine and professional toolset used in blockbuster video game development, architectural visualization, mobile game development, 3D rendering, digital films and more. The latest UDK beta is available now at www.udk.com/download.

Unreal Engine Showcase: Amazing One-Texture Environment

What can one developer achieve with a single texture and the power of UDK? Talented 3D artist Tor Frick explains his crafty ways in this interview. Download the content from this cool sci-fi lab environment now!

We have showcases of some of the most outstanding video game, architectural visualization, and mobile apps using UDK at www.udk.com/showcase and www.unrealengine.com/showcase.  Also be sure to check out the Works in Progress and the Released Projects forums.

Latest Unreal Engine 3 features overview

• At the Game Developers Conference 2012, Epic revealed the latest features and tools developers use to make award-winning games big and small with Unreal Engine 3. Check out the new trailer!

‘Epic Citadel’ for Flash released

• Originally launched for iOS devices, it’s now possible to navigate the beautiful 3D citadel realms of “Epic Citadel” on the web at unrealengine.com/flash. Flash support is available to full source, commercial UE3 licensees.

March 2012 UDK Beta Upgrade Notes

New Features and Functionality

• Unreal Editor
  • Actors will show regardless of layer visibility when in G mode
  • Before using ‘autoexpandcategories,’ the property window will first check to see if layout info has been saved
  • New ‘Create Sub-Archetype’ feature added to Unreal Content Browser.  Right-click on Archetype assets to create sub-archetypes
  • Sound Actors can now be found inside Content Browser
• Material Editor
  • Added a ‘WorldPosOffset’ category to the Material Editor’s context menu
  • Changed the material editor to only update the previews when the viewport’s real-time flag is toggled, or mouse over while the expression’s preview real-time radio box is toggled
  • Converting a Constant 1 Vector into a Parameter now behaves correctly
  • Added functionality for updating a physical material when assigning a new material interface
  • Material instance parameter groups no longer show up when none of the nodes in the group are connected
• Post-process editor improvements
  • Node color now represents the linked status (green = linked, red = unlinked)
  • Ignores node connections of different types (has to be 1 Input and 1 Output), and reorders them accordingly
  • Only marks the package as dirty when the effects order has been modified
• Mesh Paint: marking an actor’s ‘bHidden’ flag will no longer prevent it from being painted on
• Texture paint workflow automation will now allow you to duplicate textures and hook them up to a new material instance with a single button click
• Refreshing the list in Unreal Frontend so it no longer looks just for additional devices, but all devices attached. This prevents devices used previously showing, even though they may no longer be connected
• You can now use the ‘Screen Capture’ option in Unreal Console to take a screenshot