Epic Games announced yesteday at the GDC that the Unreal Engine 4 has support for Oculus Rift built into it, and has created Couch Knights to prove it. This multiplayer demo was created to show what's possible with the advanced engine, although it's not what you'd expect from the company. It's a 1v1 battle between two action figures that lets players battle it out using little figures on a coffee table. It looks pretty hysterical and is further proof of all the amazing things developers are trying out once they get their hands on the technology.
It's definitely more cutesy than anything Epic has been involved with before. When you enter the game you'll see that you and your friend are sitting in virtual couches, holding controllers, just as you are in the game. You look around as you'd expect with the Rift and both player's motion and position are mapped to their in-game avatars through invese kinematic (IK). According to Epic "[w]hile the mini-me duo initiates melee combat on the table, events can quickly take a surprising turn as they dive from the original play space, scurry at your feet, hop up on chairs, and run around you and your foe on the individual couches."
Somebody please take this demo and turn it into a new Toy Commander!
Epic Games also showed off this showcase reel (embedded below) that shows off some of the upcoming titles powered by Unreal Engine 3 and Unreal Engine 4. We've got Batman: Arkham Origins, XCOM: Enemy Within, Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z Infinity Blade III, and more.
As we announced yesterday, the second Oculus Rift development kit (dubbed simply DK2) is now for sale on their website, and offers all sorts of upgrades from the original, such as improved resolution from 720p to 1080p and a camera that tracks your virtal space. It currently costs $350.
Sony's is rumored to cost a little bit less than that but then again, it's still in prototype form as well.
Whatever the case, it's impressive to think of what developers can get up to with the Unreal Engine on the Oculus. Develoeprs are very familiar with the engine as it is- the percentage of games that use it is remarkable- and a subscription to the Unreal Engine 4's development tools and source code currently costs only $19 a month, for anyone.
