Gears of War studio Epic Games announced its popular Unreal Engine 3 now supports Adobe's Flash 11, as Adobe touts its new hardware-accelerated browser player as "the console of the web."
Unreal Engine 3 may have -- so far -- made its mark on the console, PC and mobile markets, but now Epic Games says its engine is about to truly go "everywhere." On Tuesday during the Adobe Max conference in L.A., Epic CEO, founder and technical director Tim Sweeney announced UE3 support for Adobe's Flash player. With support for Flash, Gears of War and Unreal Tournament developer Epic Games brings its already widely-used engine to an even wider audience of web-goers, thanks to the ubiquity of Adobe's web-based platform. Industry veteran Sweeney showed a live demonstration of UE3 running inside the recently-released Adobe Flash 11 during his keynote at the conference, using the PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 game Unreal Tournament 3 as an example. UE3 works well thanks to Flash 11's hardware accelerated, programmable graphics pipeline, Adobe said. Flash is now "capable of running triple-A gaming content authored for high-end platforms using the industry's latest tools and technologies," the company said in a statement. Adobe also promised that thanks to the wide use of Flash in web browsers and social networks, UE3 is expected to "usher in the leap from simplistic 2D game experiences to world-class 3D gaming on the web." The company claimed Flash 11 allows "1,000 times faster 2D and 3D graphics rendering performance over Flash Player 10," allowing for 60 frames per second, "console-quality" visuals on Mac OS, Windows and internet-enabled TVs. "With UE3 and Flash, games built for high-end consoles can now run on the Web or as Facebook apps, reaching an enormous user base," said Sweeney. "This totally changes the playing field for game developers who want to widely deploy and monetize their games." Adobe Gaming Solutions group product manager Emmy Huang called Flash 11 "the console of the web" in a statement on Tuesday. "Flash is delivering immersive gaming experiences across screens and we're thrilled to have Epic Games using Flash Player to deliver its blockbuster, premier 3D games on the web." UE3 licensees will be able to access new Flash features, and more information is available at the engine's official website. Gamasutra will have more from Epic on UE3 in the near future. 
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