Epic Games, creator of newer titles like Infinity Blade and classics like Unreal Tournament, is just as famous for their engine as for their games. Their vaunted Unreal Engine has powered some of the most well-known and ambitious projects in gaming, as well as tons of indie and fan projects. Now in its fourth iteration, the relatively easy to use engine is more popular than ever and is being used for high-end VR development. With the engine fueling projects for the likes of the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift, seeing support for it hit Google’s new Daydream VR platform shouldn’t be that much of a surprise. The new platform is geared to allow mobile devices’ VR experiences to rival those of systems that need to be tied to specced out gaming PCs, meaning that development in Unreal Engine 4 could bring some incredibly compelling content to the world of smartphone VR.
The Unity engine is almost as ubiquitous as Unreal Engine, being used in countless apps and games on mobile and a huge number of games on other platforms. Although generally thought of as less powerful, Unity is still a very capable engine and, being slightly easier to use, tends to attract a wider array of developers. This means that Unity gaining support for Daydream alongside Unreal Engine stands to bring thousands of developers that work with Unity into the fold, gracing Google’s new VR platform with everything from casual and indie games like Temple Run to titles of insane scale that rival the latest AAA console games. Naturally, the applications outside of gaming are also there; Unity can be used to create 3D apps and media, as well.
The two engines are already live with their support of Daydream, meaning that developers can update their kits and begin working on projects for Daydream right now. The video attached below, a tech demo of Unreal Engine on Daydream, shows off the incredible power of Google’s new VR system, giving users a completely immersive experience with graphics that rival the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 in a mobile package. The exciting new Vulcan graphics API, poised to bring the open-source community’s gaming experience into step with that found on consoles and Microsoft Windows, is also on board. With an incredible array of developers already well experienced in both Unity and Unreal Engine, bringing these engines to Daydream, billed as immersive VR for the masses, may well be the most exciting development yet in VR gaming.