WRAL Tech Wire

Epic Games Adds More Animation Tools to Unreal Engine

Epic Games is adding cutting-edge animation capabilities to its Unreal Engine 3 in a deal with Natural Motion Ltd. .

The U.K.-based company is licensing its “morepheme” technology to Epic and also will become part of Epic’s integrated partners development program.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The morepheme technology enables what Epic called “very complex” animation. The animation engine technology is the first that can be used across PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC platforms, according to Epic.

“Unreal Engine 3 is already an inspired game design platform, offering much of the bleeding edge technology developers need,” said Torsten Reil, NaturalMotion’s chief executive officer. “By adding morpheme to Epic’s suite, more studios will be able to take advantage of NaturalMotion’s pioneering animation technology, allowing for a whole new generation of games with astonishingly realistic characters and animations.”