Unreal Engine 4 screenshots feature fire demon and snowy landscapes

Great news for graphics whores as Epic Games has revealed the first set of screenshots from the next version of their acclaimed engine, the Unreal Engine. These Unreal Engine 4 shots showcase a game (or a tech demo) that looks similar to Skyrim. We do know that Skyrim was a big success to the PC and Epic Games have revealed during GDC2012 that they’re developing a PC exclusive title. Naturally, most of us expected this title to be a showcase title for Unreal Engine 4, so could these screenshots actually be from the PC exclusive title that Epic has in store for us? One can only guess but if that’s the case, we can expect an RPG game from the studio that brought us the Unreal and the Gears of War series. But then again, the studio stated that the PC exclusive title would be a shooter and this is definitely not a shooter. So, a PC exclusive title or an RPG for next-generation platforms? Whatever the case might be, you can enjoy the shots after the jump!

Epic have been showing off the next iteration of the Unreal Engine to developers for a short while. Wiredgot a look recently, and have posted their impressions alongside a few new shots showing a fiery demon, some busy wireframe scenes and a lovely vista.

Epic haven’t released the demo video yet, but Wired describe plenty of new tech, including an advanced particle rendering systems and a lighting program that models the way light bounces around rooms entirely in real time, bypassing the typical level design techniques that “bake” light and shadow into the textures of a scene. The days of designers hand-placing individual light shafts in a scene may well be over.

Epic demonstrated the subtlety of the new lighting system by bowling a ball of light down a dark hallway, which surely looked more impressive than that time they Epic rolled a cube of meat around Gears of War 2 to demonstrate soft body physics. Unreal Engine 4 will also include a new version of the user friendly Kismet programming system, improved liquid simulation and better scene destruction tech.

Hopefully Epic will show the video soon, their last big tech demo, codenamed Samaritan, was pretty spectacular.