Unreal Engine
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Unreal Engine is a widely used and long running game engine developed by Epic Games since the 1990s. Originally used for internal titles such as Unreal, it gained widespread popularity with third party developers. Well known for the creation of shooters, the engine is also be used for other genres of games. The engine is well known for supporting cutting edge 3D graphics technologies on a variety of platforms.
Has a website here.
Tropes used in Unreal Engine include:
- Allegedly Free Game Engine: Has very generous licencing terms, being free for revenues under a large threshold. Royalties do apply in some situations though.
- Backed by the Pentagon:
- Back in 2012 the BBC reported that the game engine was being used in simulations to help train US Army medics. In the 2020s the engine was also being used by defense companies like Lockheed Martin according to an Unreal Engine press release.
- This actually goes way back since 2002 with the release of America's Army, a playable recruitment tool released by the U.S. Army which was the first game to ship with Unreal Engine 2.
- Character Customization: The engine works closely with the MetaHuman framework for the creation of character models.
- Long Runners: Has been used since the 1990s.
- Microtransactions: The engine documentation outlines how to add these to a game via in app purchases.
- Multi-Platform: The editor runs on Microsoft Windows, Mac OS, and technically Linux. Unreal Engine can export to a wide variety of platforms.
- Wreaking Havok: The engine supports a variety of physics tools as outlined by the documentation.