Illuminate Labs Joins Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 3 Integrated Partners Program

Story by Farid - Tuesday 18th December 2007, 11:11:00 PM

GOTHENBURG, SWEDEN (December 18, 2007) – Illuminate Labs, creators of rendering and lighting technology for next-generation games, and Epic Games, Inc. today announced a licensing agreement to incorporate Illuminate Labs' global illumination system, Beast, into Epic's Unreal Engine 3 (UE3), the industry's most popular game engine. Under the terms of the agreement, Illuminate Labs will join Epic's prestigious Integrated Partners Program (IPP), and its technology will be immediately available to any publishers or developers that license UE3.

By incorporating Illuminate Labs’ Beast lighting solution into UE3, the two companies have enabled artists to seamlessly add global illumination to development environments using the renowned Unreal Editor. Beast is also a fully platform-independent baker that utilizes the open-standard FBX file format, which allows users to easily add extremely complex baking functionality to 3D asset creation tools. UE3 licensees can instantly start taking advantage of Beast’s features that are new to the engine, which include:

• Global Illumination baking
  
• Skylights from HDR images
• Baked soft shadows with transparency

Future feature sets developed by Illuminate Labs will be incorporated into UE3 per the partnership.

“We are very proud to be part of Epic’s Integrated Partners Program,” said Magnus Wennerholm, chief executive officer of Illuminate Labs. “Visual quality and cost effectiveness in the production process are key issues to all games studios, and with this partnership UE3 customers will benefit from easy access to our advanced lighting technology.”

“We are very pleased to give our licensees access to one of the most advanced lighting technologies available through this partnership,” said Dr. Michael Capps, president of Epic Games. “Integrating Beast into UE3 will help our licensees more easily create games utilizing best-of-breed global illumination techniques. We welcome Illuminate Labs into the partners program and look forward to empowering more developers through this relationship.”

Epic Games' Integrated Partners Program (IPP) establishes a formal business relationship with exceptional companies making cross-platform technologies which integrate with, and are complementary to, UE3. Under the IPP, Epic provides continuous UE3 source code access and full technical support to IPP members. Companies who join the IPP agree to provide a high level of technical support for UE3 licensees through Epic's established support channels, keep their implementations up-to-date with the latest engine versions and collaborate with Epic on potential promotional and co-marketing efforts.

Developers utilizing the UE3 and Beast technology integration include Gearbox Software, creators of the celebrated Brothers in Arms franchise, the upcoming first-person shooter based on the Aliens motion picture and Borderlands for PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

“Gearbox Software likes to stay on the cutting edge of video game technology,” said Randy Pitchford, president of Gearbox Software. “Gearbox licensed new technology from Illuminate Labs for several of its upcoming games. This new arrangement with Illuminate Labs and Epic Games will ensure that the technology is supported at the source and will help Gearbox Software continue to make the most technologically advanced and graphically impressive video games as a licensee of Unreal Engine 3.”

About Illuminate Labs

Headquartered in Gothenburg, Sweden, Illuminate Labs develops and markets rendering and baking technology especially tailored to satisfy the needs of next-generation game developers based on the proprietary LiquidLight technology. Turtle, its product for Maya by Autodesk, is the only product on the market that combines advanced rendering technology with sophisticated baking functionality in one integrated toolset. Beast, its platform-independent pipeline product, allows users to add global illumination and extremely powerful baking functionality to their internal tools. Illuminate Labs’ clients include BioWare, Electronic Arts, Guerrilla, Insomniac, Midway, Ninja Theory, Nintendo, Polyphony Digital, Sony Computer Entertainment and Valve Software. For additional information about Illuminate Labs, visit www.illuminatelabs.com.

About Unreal Engine 3

The award-winning Unreal Engine is known for cutting-edge graphics and best-of-breed toolset. Unreal Engine 3 maintains those features while adding massive world support, multi-processor support, next-generation console optimizations, and one of the most mature tool pipelines in the industry. Unreal Engine 3's new toolset is designed specifically to accelerate developers' productivity for ultra-complex, next-generation content. Additional information on Unreal Engine can be obtained through the Unreal Technology Web site at www.unrealtechnology.com.

About Epic Games

Epic Games, Inc., based in Cary, NC and established in 1991, develops cutting-edge games and cross-platform game engine technology. The company has created multiple million-selling, award-winning titles in its Unreal series, recently shipping Unreal Tournament 3 for PC and PlayStation 3. Epic’s breakthrough game, Gears of War, sold over 4 million copies and was awarded overall Game of the Year for 2006 by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, Game Developers Choice Awards, GameSpot, GamePro and many others. Epic is also responsible for the Unreal Engine, which is the underlying technology for a wide range of games including the Game Critics Awards’ Best Console Game and Spike TV’s 2007 RPG of the Year Mass Effect by BioWare and the 2007 BAFTA Best Game and Spike TV Game of the Year BioShock by 2K Games. Epic's Unreal Engine 3 is the current holder, and three-time consecutive winner, of Game Developer magazine's Front Line award for Best Game Engine. Epic was also recognized as 2006 Studio of the Year by Spike TV, Developer of the Year by Official Xbox Magazine and 2007 Large Company of the Year by the North Carolina Technology Association. Additional information about Epic can be obtained through the Epic Games Web site at www.epicgames.com.

Epic, Epic Games, Unreal, Unreal Tournament and Gears of War are trademarks or registered trademarks of Epic Games, Inc. in the United States of America and elsewhere. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.