Unreal Engine is Getting Destructable Environment Support

AlphaAtlas

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High-quality destructible environments seem like something that should be standard in 2019, but even today, it's a relatively rare thing to find in a game. It was a headlining feature Red Faction: Guerilla back in 2009, and a prominent feature in the recently released Crackdown 3, but detailed, destructible environments are still absent from most releases. However, at GDC this year, Epic announced that they're integrating a destruction system into Unreal Engine. Given how popular the engine is, and how competitors will probably try to achieve feature parity, I expect to see more games with destructible environments in the near future.

Check out the demonstration here.


Revealed onstage at GDC 2019 during "State of Unreal," Chaos is Unreal Engine's new high-performance physics and destruction system coming in early access to Unreal Engine 4.23. The real-time tech demo is set within the world of Robo Recall. With Chaos, users can achieve cinematic-quality visuals in real time in scenes with massive-scale levels of destruction, with unprecedented artist control over content creation.
 
Remember a game called "The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction"?

Surprised more games don't have fully destructible worlds.. I played the game just for that. Great stuff and very rewarding to destroy everything virtually.
 
Am I actually Bill Murray, living out Groundhog Day? I swear this story was posted yesterday, but perhaps today IS yesterday.
 
Remember a game called "The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction"?

Surprised more games don't have fully destructible worlds.. I played the game just for that. Great stuff and very rewarding to destroy everything virtually.

The problem is it's very expensive computationally, especially if the falling debris can interact with the environment at large. That's why most games that feature destruction do so in *very* controlled ways in order to simplify the math in order to not have a massive performance impact.
 
The problem is it's very expensive computationally, especially if the falling debris can interact with the environment at large. That's why most games that feature destruction do so in *very* controlled ways in order to simplify the math in order to not have a massive performance impact.
I get it, but this is [H]!

Developers need to step it up. There's way too much focus on story campaign and levels than the sheer fun of genuine destroying *all* of the environment. Remember how many times everyone would shoot down trees in Crysis or destroy the roofs?
 
Seriously, about fucking time. It’s one of the things I’ve always hated about games. I look forward to what’s to come from this.
 
Careful! They make make a game that utilizes destructible environments with their engine a requirement to be solely distributed via the Epic store...
 
Careful! They make make a game that utilizes destructible environments with their engine a requirement to be solely distributed via the Epic store...


The cool thing about Unreal Engine is that each point version's license is self-contained. The terms can only change on newer versions, not older ones.
 
I get it, but this is [H]!

Developers need to step it up. There's way too much focus on story campaign and levels than the sheer fun of genuine destroying *all* of the environment. Remember how many times everyone would shoot down trees in Crysis or destroy the roofs?
It's not that it can't be implemented, bar resources, but it's hard to make fun and fit in with most games.
 
It's not that it can't be implemented, bar resources, but it's hard to make fun and fit in with most games.

Red Faction : Guerilla is one of my favorite games with destructible stuff..

There have been a ton of games I wish had a fully destructible environment.. devs need to implement this ASAP!
 
Does this even sentence?
Sadly, I think I understand him and agree. Destruction of buildings was one of my favorite parts of Battlefield: Bad Company 2. Frostbite did have a bit of trouble keeping up, though. Would be cool to see that game done in the new Unreal engine. BF:BC2 was the last BF/COD type game I bought.
 
I get it, but this is [H]!

Developers need to step it up. There's way too much focus on story campaign and levels than the sheer fun of genuine destroying *all* of the environment. Remember how many times everyone would shoot down trees in Crysis or destroy the roofs?

But even then, all Crysis did is just apply a downward force; you don't get debris flying everywhere, with the potential to damage/kill objects in the environment, let alone cause additional chain reactions.

That's the real issue here: The processing cost for multi-object interactions is exponential. And unless you specifically build a game where it is a central theme, there isn't any significant gameplay benefit to justify it's inclusion.
 
Destruction of buildings was one of my favorite parts of Battlefield: Bad Company 2

It wasn't just for fun- though it was fun!- destruction in this game allowed for different tactics, especially with the Rush game mode.

What's surprising is that DICE has dialed the destruction back in later games. I was hoping for more.
 
X-Com UFO Defense had this In 1994. Not sure if an alien was hiding in a building? Just launch a missile at the wall and make a new window. Who could imagine this wouldn't be common 25 years later?
Of course, it also had research, multi base building, a low-res google earth map system, awesome turn-based combat, cool music, encyclopedia and simple but fun air combat. Despite all that, only took 14 Mb. About the space of a single MP3 song today.
 
High-quality destructible environments seem like something that should be standard in 2019, but even today, it's a relatively rare thing to find in a game. It was a headlining feature in Red Faction, back in 2001
FTFY. PS I'm old.
 
Destructible environments are the gaming version of TV eye candy. Even when all else gets boring, satisfying destruction is good enough to autopilot for a bit.

Those videos comparing far cry 2 to far cry 5 fire and destructability were incredibly damning of gaming industry's """progress.""""

 
ROOOOBOOOO RECALL!!! What a fun game.


It seems like we went backward for destructible environments for years. Maybe the new consoles just couldn’t handle it. Then again, PS2 did Black just fine.
 
It's not that it can't be implemented, bar resources, but it's hard to make fun and fit in with most games.

Maps are meticulously designed for balance between teams. Morphing the terrain changes the strat. BF4 had the best implementation of this but it was obvious what they did, they basically designed 2 versions of every map, one nice and fresh and one completely wrecked after a 30 minute campaign. They had to make sure the levels were still playable in a strategic sense even after having been "destroyed" which resulted in a largely scripted sequence of destructible events. It was still fun, but I remember people always complaining about blowing up the skyscraper too soon on Shanghai because it was a fun objective to capture in the first phase of the map. You cant really have a competitive match if the entire environment can be razed to the ground as cool as the technology sounds. Imagine a game like Overwatch where you could just punch holes in any wall to get where you want. The whole thing would become a total shitshow.
 
I get it, but this is [H]!

Developers need to step it up. There's way too much focus on story campaign and levels than the sheer fun of genuine destroying *all* of the environment. Remember how many times everyone would shoot down trees in Crysis or destroy the roofs?
Way too much focus on story and campaign? Which universe are you coming from, because it is certainly not this one.
 
Latest what? Game tho have a story? Every game having a story should be a bare minimum requirement.
You said: "Way too much focus on story and campaign? Which universe are you coming from, because it is certainly not this one."
I told you a game as an example. Non-destructive world, story and campaign focus with no other focus - at all.

Come on, read back a few posts, get with it. I'm literally rewording for you when you don't even check your own spelling and accused me of being from a different universe.

A bare-minimum requirement of a story is exactly my point - it's the bare minimum without anything more..
 
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