Some thoughts on using the Unreal games engine for my project …
The main advantage would be that I could produce much higher quality graphics than I could using Second Life or something similar. I could model everything in 3DS Max first and then import it to a level in Unreal.
However, there are a number of disadvantages …
1 - I haven't really used 3DS Max before, except for a couple of sessions during workshop week.
2 - I also haven't used the Unreal editor before, except for following a couple of REALLY annoying video tutorials like this one …
These two factors mean that it would be very difficult to produce something finished within the available timescale.
3 - Although it would be possible to share the work online, there are problems. I have spent some time browsing around various UT sites and concluded that the UT community is primarily interested in playing UT as a game - i.e. they want levels where they can run around shooting each other. I have been unable to find any associated artistic communities who would be interested in more imaginative uses for the engine. For those who are not already UT players, they would presumably have to buy their own copy of the game before they could view the work online. The examples below of art projects using the UT engine are all standalone applications.
4 - I haven't been able to conclusively find this information, but I am not sure it would be possible to change the shape and behaviour of objects in _non-predefined ways_ using UT. What I mean is that I could not morph one shape into another (for instance) without first defining and importing each of the shapes as well as the animation for morphing one into the other. In Second Life, I know I could do this live and "on-the-fly" depending on variables grabbed from within the ecosystem, from elsewhere in SL or from anywhere on the net. I might be wrong about this, but I am wary about investing too much time learning these tools (see 1 and 2 above) only to discover that this is a limitation. Without this it would be impossible for my creatures to evolve.
5 - there's no sky
A few examples of people using the Unreal games engine to produce art …
Modelling the Upokrinomena: Artificial Physiology for Artificial Life
Marc Cavazza, Simon Hartley , Louis Bec, François Mourre, Gonzague Defos du Rau, Remy Lalanne, Mikael Le Bras and Jean-Luc Lugrin
Madame Bovary on the Holodeck: Immersive Interactive Storytelling
Marc Cavazza, Jean-Luc Lugrin and David Pizzi
MindbendingSoftware Inc
Brainwash your child according to your own agenda while they play video games. An art project shown at **Piksel05
Home Dictate
Ivor Diosi
Lilith
Pavel Smetana
The visitors experience a journey through only the virtual landscapes into which their own physical and psychical (psychological) mental condition leads them. The virtual landscapes, originating from the 3D engine used in computer games, are projected stereoscopically directly in front of the visitors, who can experience a situation resembling daydreaming in a private 3-D movie house. The imagery gradates from a horror hyperrealist atmosphere to a geometrically clean or, per contra, fantastically organic abstraction; submarine sea flowers, various flying objects, trees or even human embryos or sperms appear there. Meeting with artificial beings (avatars) controlled by the artificial intelligence modules also forms a part of this investigative journey.