Home Gaming This is Unreal Engine 4 running in your browser

This is Unreal Engine 4 running in your browser

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unreal-4

Browser-based games used to be rather simple. You’d head to JoeCartoon.com, and satisfy those lunatic urges of yours by microwaving a crudely animated hamster. Time passed, and the tools to create more impressive games online got more advanced. But hot damn, Mozilla Firefox may be hitting a homerun here with some Unreal visuals.

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This is the Unreal Engine 4, running at real-time speeds and without any plug-ins at all according to the Mozilla blog. “This technology has reached a point where games users can jump into via a Web link are now almost indistinguishable from ones they might have had to wait to download and install,” said Brendan Eich, CTO and SVP of Engineering on the blog.

Using Emscripten to cross-compile C and C++ into asm.js, developers can run their games at near-native speeds, so they can approach the Web as they would any other platform.

Honestly? That looks incredible. The Unreal Engine has always been the Michael Bay of visual tools for gaming: Loud, detailed, oh so pretty and filled with explosions. Plus they go great with an Aerosmith tune as you code into the sunset.

But this could be a game-changer. More and more, we’re hearing of how gaming is going to eventually transcend the physical medium and become an online only service. And I’ve got no qualms about ditching Google Chrome for this kind of action.

I’m just absolutely thankful that it’s not Internet Explorer that’s begging me yet again to come back to it. Not even Unreal would sway me back to that horrid piece of browsing design.

Last Updated: March 13, 2014

53 Comments

  1. Wow you must have read my mind. That header image is EXACTLY what I imagine ladies to be like.

    Reply

    • VampyreSquirrel

      March 13, 2014 at 08:00

      I think Diablo is more of a lady than some women on earth… *hides from backlash*

      Reply

      • Alien Emperor Trevor

        March 13, 2014 at 08:11

        lol ouch.

        Reply

  2. Willem Swanepoel

    March 13, 2014 at 07:59

    Quake Live runs really smooth in my browser. Do not mind playing games in Chrome if it runs like Quake Live 😉

    Reply

    • DrKiller

      March 13, 2014 at 09:45

      Quake can run smooth on a mobile phone too… Your argument is invalid 😛

      Reply

    • Rags

      March 13, 2014 at 10:40

      No it doesn’t 😉 The match browser was running through a browser, its now a standalone client.

      Reply

  3. VampyreSquirrel

    March 13, 2014 at 07:59

    I saw a few frame glitches on that… but all in all, that’s just freaking cool and scary… an Unreal engine running in a (sometimes) resource hungry web browser.

    Reply

  4. Alien Emperor Trevor

    March 13, 2014 at 08:00

    The day they make games an online only service is the day I read a book, watch a movie, go for a hike, klap it at the gym, maybe even cook; basically anything other than play a new game. I know I’m not totally in control of my gaming now, but there’s no way in hell that I’m giving you complete control over it.

    Reply

    • Hammersteyn

      March 13, 2014 at 08:04

      MMOs are there already. They can kill the servers anytime a game stops making profit what can you do about it?

      Reply

      • Alien Emperor Trevor

        March 13, 2014 at 08:10

        Nothing besides throw an internet tantrum, which is more for my amusement than anything else.

        But games as a service goes beyond MMOs, which I don’t play anyway because I’m not interested in playing nicely with others.

        Reply

        • Hammersteyn

          March 13, 2014 at 08:16

          I would cry myself to sleep if they killed Planetside 2. Interestingly the games success lies with playing well with others. Summing up the current situation when you get to a hot spot and picking your class accordingly be it infiltration,assault or support.

          Reply

          • Alien Emperor Trevor

            March 13, 2014 at 08:24

            I’m not emotionally invested in a game anymore, that’s how they catch you. I’ve dropped around 30 hours into Loadout the last few weeks & I really enjoy it, but if they shut it off right now then that’s what happens – I’ll move on. After throwing a tantrum about it. Not being able to play one particular game has no effect on my life because there’s always something else.

          • VampyreSquirrel

            March 13, 2014 at 08:29

            Yeah, 100+ something elses in your case

            *RUNS*

          • Alien Emperor Trevor

            March 13, 2014 at 08:35

            haha yes, and I’m happy about it. It’s actually pretty liberating now that I think of it.

          • Hammersteyn

            March 13, 2014 at 08:39

            I’ve dropped 30 days give or take into PS2. I might be addicted.

    • Kromas

      March 13, 2014 at 09:22

      BF4 cough cough.

      Reply

  5. Kromas

    March 13, 2014 at 08:30

    JoeCartoon. Nice name drop. SUPAFLY!

    Anyways I heard microsoft is building a new technology that allows you to download Firefox even faster.

    It is called IE12. 😛

    *Drops Mic and walks away.

    Reply

    • Alien Emperor Trevor

      March 13, 2014 at 08:32

      lulz. SUPAFLY, BANZAI!

      Reply

    • VampyreSquirrel

      March 13, 2014 at 08:35

      Stoned flies was better than supafly.

      Reply

      • Alien Emperor Trevor

        March 13, 2014 at 08:36

        Shut your filthy squirrel mouth. NO NUTS FOR YOU!

        Reply

        • Kromas

          March 13, 2014 at 08:38

          Hahaha … gonna have to rename VampyreSquirrel to foamy now. 😛

          Reply

          • Alien Emperor Trevor

            March 13, 2014 at 08:40

            LOLLLLLLL

          • VampyreSquirrel

            March 13, 2014 at 08:47

            Foamy the squirrel for world leader!!!

        • RinceIsIngwer

          March 13, 2014 at 08:43

          0-o

          Reply

        • VampyreSquirrel

          March 13, 2014 at 08:51

          Shut your filthy alien mouth. NO SIX FOR YOU! (in reference to your avatar)

          Reply

          • Alien Emperor Trevor

            March 13, 2014 at 08:55

            WHAT? NOOOOOOOOO! 🙁 I’m sorry.

            PS. FINALLY someone got it.

          • VampyreSquirrel

            March 13, 2014 at 08:56

            lol I got it ages ago… chuckle every time I see Chode.

            Still want that series again… just a pain to actually find 🙁

          • Alien Emperor Trevor

            March 13, 2014 at 08:58

            It’s floating around on one of my backup drives 😀

          • VampyreSquirrel

            March 13, 2014 at 09:09

            In Cape Town… doesn’t help me

          • VampyreSquirrel

            March 13, 2014 at 09:33

            Can buy the Zone 1 imports from AWX and takealot 😛

          • Alien Emperor Trevor

            March 13, 2014 at 09:47

            Buy? Does not compute.

          • VampyreSquirrel

            March 13, 2014 at 10:05

            It’s like downloading a torrent and copying to dvd, but you pay someone else to do the downloading and copying for you. 😛

          • Alien Emperor Trevor

            March 13, 2014 at 10:14

            rofl. I think that may just be the best explanation I’ve ever heard.

    • VampyreSquirrel

      March 13, 2014 at 08:35

      Also… Da dum tsh

      Reply

    • Jase

      March 13, 2014 at 09:13

      Gerbil Genocide…Also, I am the monkey, I can go anywhere…

      Reply

  6. Unavengedavo(aka. Bilbo)

    March 13, 2014 at 08:50

    Reply

    • VampyreSquirrel

      March 13, 2014 at 08:54

      I think that’s what they call a “cropping” fail.

      Reply

      • Alien Emperor Trevor

        March 13, 2014 at 08:56

        With that facial expression I’m not so sure.

        Reply

      • RinceIsIngwer

        March 13, 2014 at 08:59

        I just vomited a little…

        Reply

    • Weanerdog

      March 13, 2014 at 09:12

      I saw

      Reply

    • TiMsTeR1033

      March 13, 2014 at 09:12

      and didn’t see, nor did he conquer.

      Reply

      • Willem Swanepoel

        March 13, 2014 at 11:24

        I saw, I conquered, I came

        Reply

  7. Kensei Seraph

    March 13, 2014 at 09:02

    There are only 2 reason to use IE.
    1. To download something else.
    2. To see the next episode of http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHTUlF7NA2o and even then it’s still now worth it

    Reply

  8. Weanerdog

    March 13, 2014 at 09:11

    Wonder what line speed these fellows are running.

    Reply

  9. TiMsTeR1033

    March 13, 2014 at 09:11

    The catch is…… WHAT KINDA INTERNET SPEEDS WOULD YOU NEED TO RUN THIS???

    Reply

    • Weanerdog

      March 13, 2014 at 09:12

      That’s what I said

      Reply

      • TiMsTeR1033

        March 13, 2014 at 09:12

        We did it as the same time! 0_0

        Reply

  10. Sir Rants A Lot Llew. Jelly!!!

    March 13, 2014 at 09:18

    About as feasible as any streaming gaming service. You’d still need insane amounts of bandwidth to transport the data.

    Still, very cool that it can run in-browser. Kinda surprised

    Reply

  11. Corporal Stick

    March 13, 2014 at 09:19

    I want some of that !

    Reply

  12. Labey-Kun

    March 13, 2014 at 09:21

    I don’t understand how Epic brags about this when they could achieve this with Unreal Engine 3?

    Reply

  13. Johan du Preez

    March 13, 2014 at 09:28

    It looks exacly the same as Unreal Engine 3 they have never been good at innovating but always just followed in the footsteps of id Software in the technology thats being used.

    They do absolutely nothing to innovate with their engine this looks like its running on a xbox360.

    Frostbite and Havoc engines already looks better than this.

    Reply

    • Rags

      March 13, 2014 at 10:38

      Not sure if troll, but this is running through the browser. That would be like you saying look at UE4 running on the iphone it looks like UE3. It scales. How is this innovation a lack of innovation?

      id Software is nowhere near the position they where back before the release of UE3. They are far behind all major engines. In terms of toolset and visuals very few come even close to UE.

      Btw HavoK is a physics engine…

      Reply

  14. DrKiller

    March 13, 2014 at 09:46

    UT4 confirmed? PPPLLLEEEAAAASE bring out a new UT

    Reply

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