Epic Games released the March 2011 UDK beta, the latest version of the Unreal Development Kit (UDK), the free edition of Unreal Engine 3 that provides access to the award-winning toolset used in blockbuster video games, 3D visualizations, digital films and more. This beta is available for all at http://www.udk.com/download.

The most important DirectX features shipped with this UDK release are:

• Tessellation and displacement;
• Geometry shaders;
• Multisampled textures; and
• Shader Model 5.

High-end rendering features include:

• Image-based reflections that allow surfaces of any shape to reflect an approximate version of scenes, with varying glossiness across surfaces, anisotropic HDR highlights and anti-aliasing;
• Subsurface scattering (SSS) that simulates the light that scatters inside semi-translucent materials, making character skin come alive;
• Anti-aliased masked materials that super sample the edges of masked and alpha-tested materials, making character hair more look realistic than ever before;
• Deferred rendering with MSAA support;
• Bokeh depth of field providing close to film-quality DOF, with artist-controllable Bokeh; and
• High-quality dynamic shadows from many lights on the environment, such as shadows for point lights and other light sources.

NVIDIA’s APEX technology has also been integrated into the engine and ships with UDK.

Epic recently presented a brand new Unreal Engine 3 real-time demonstration entitled "Samaritan", which leverages DirectX 11 support, high-end rendering features, NVIDIA APEX physics technology and other engine upgrades. These new technical additions are now available in the March build of UDK. Check out coverage of following video of "Samaritan".

Revealed at the 2011 Game Developers Conference, this video is useful to know what Epic wants to see in the next generation of games.

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