In 1998, a company then known as Epic MegaGames introduced Unreal Engine editor which enabled their customers and enthusiasts to build world levels in three dimensions, causing a revolution in how the games were made.
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Epic Games reports that its Unreal Editor for Unreal Engine 4 is up and running in virtual reality, meaning developers should be able to strap on the HTC Vive or Oculus Rift, don the accompanying motion controllers, and create virtual reality experiences in real time.
As shown below, the Unreal Engine’s editor can be used from within VR – here on an HTC Vive headset – to do real-time creation. It will also be integrated into Unreal Engine when it’s ready and it’s source code will be available for anyone to peruse on GitHub.
“There’s no need to learn a user interface”, says Epic CEO Tim Sweeney in the breakdown video. It will allow you to pick up, place and manipulate objects and teleport across the game world to wherever you need to make adjustments.
Unreal Engine has come a long way since it was first introduced back in the mid-’90s. Ironically enough, they’ve largely been building virtual experiences using traditional tools – you know, a mouse and keyboard.
As we teeter on the brink of modern virtual reality, developers are hard at work coding the imaginary worlds we’ll one day step foot in.
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More details, including a release date, are coming on March 16, 2016 during this year’s GDC. In the meantime, you can catch the new VR editor in action by checking out the video below!
