Epic shows off Unreal Engine 4's layered materials in new video

Epic has released a new video that showcases some of the capabilities of the upcoming Unreal Engine 4. The new video shows how the engine can handle layered materials. A material is essentially the texture of any object in the game. The video also gives us a look at the still work-in-progress material editor in the Unreal Engine 4 devkit.

The system of layered materials lets developers set up several layers of these materials on geometry. This allows a higher fidelity without as much stress on hardware. It essentially works by letting developers specify what materials go where on the polygon level. Check out the video that explains it in much further detail:

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Back in June, Epic had revealed that Unreal Engine 4 will be integrating quite a few popular middleware technologies and software into the devkit. This is part of the Unreal Engine 4's Integrated Partners Program (IPP). Middleware technology such as support for the Oculus Rift and Nvidia's PhysX will be included in Unreal Engine 4.

“The new Integrated Partners Program helps Unreal Engine 4 developers maximize their time with the most advanced toolset we’ve ever developed,” said Tim Sweeney, Founder and Technical Director of Epic Games in a press release. “We have taken the time to integrate UE4 with the best middleware technologies so our licensees can stay focused on making great games.”

The software and technology included in Unreal Engine 4 as part of IPP are Audiokinetic's Wwise, Autodesk's Gameware, Donya Labs' Simplygon, Geomerics' Enlighten, IDV's SpeedTree for Games, Intel Threading Building Blocks, NaturalMotion's morpheme and euphoria, Nvidia's PhysX and APEX, Oculus VR's Oculus Rift, Rad Game Tools' Bink Video and Telemetry Performance Visualiser, RealD Development Kit, Umbra Software's Umbra 3 and Xoreax's IncrediBuild-XGE.