If you have an iDevice, I highly suggest you go to the App Store and download Epic Citadel.

Epic Citadel for iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPod touch (3rd generation), and iPad on the iTunes App Store (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/epic-citadel/id388888815?mt=8)

Look at the screenshots in that link - that's Unreal Engine 3, running in REAL TIME, on an iPhone - in my case, a 3GS.

Quick run down of the tech specs:
ARM 600 MHz CPU
PowerVR Graphics chip
256 MB of RAM

That's about the equivalent of a PlayStation 2, give or take.

Epic Citadel looks like a freaking PlayStation 3 game.

Granted, this is only a tech demo, but if they can pull this off in a full game (currently in development as 'Project Sword'), the 3DS has got some stiff competition; early demos look like PlayStation 2 graphics. Colour me impressed.

I wouldn't say the 3DS has competition... If Apple seriously wants to market this thing for games, they're gonna have to put some buttons on it, because a single 1 with a touch screen isn't gonna cut it.

I will grant you though, it is pretty impressive that Unreal 3 is running on that, and it looks pretty good. On the other hand though, the 3DS can run the Resident Evil 5 engine (http://gamecauldron.com/2010/06/26/new-screens-emerge-for-capcoms-3ds-title-resident-evil-revelations.aspx).

Smarty, that's pre-rendered, you dumbass.

Sorry but no. I'm not sure exactly what's made people think that, but Capcom has confirmed that it's real-time, I checked both their twitter feed at the time and their main website to make sure (even translated the Japanese text). So unless they're lying, it's real time. Don't doubt the 3DS my man, it's capabilities are pretty close to the PS3/360.

but its just a tech demo.
tech demos are nice looking and all, but the sad truth is no game ever comes close to look like what was shown in a tech demo.


Smarty, that's pre-rendered, you dumbass.

its real time.

Last time I clicked on a iTunes link it gave me an error message saying that the app isn't available in Malaysia :/

And my iPad is at home and I'm at work atm.

I'll look into it tonight.

And btw, if you see the quicktime logo briefly displayed on the screen after something, then the thing shown before is pre-rendered. My iPad does that when an app finishes streaming video or playing back a pre-rendered scene. Would you believe that the ending of the iPad version of Plants vs. Zombies is pre-rendered? :(

I'm not sure why Epic are getting all this attention while id Software's demo passed over without much buzz

YouTube - RAGE 60fps real-time gameplay demo for iPhone 4 by John Carmack- HD 720p (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_t5nIA5zfhg&feature=related)

Carmack said they could easily get the demo running on the 3GS as well.

The thing that impressed me most is the fact that I can actually see it in action on my 3GS - that said, that trailer looks just as amazing.

It just goes to show what you can pull off when programmers like John Carmack REALLY try to leverage the power of a device.

Necropost, but I finally got it downloaded last night off the US App Store (for stupid reasons, it's not available in the Malaysian App Store). Epic indeed, it isn't pre-rendered. I did notice that there were some noticable frame drops, but then:

1. I was running it on an iPad, which has a XVGA screen resolution (1024x768). Even the newest iPhones are only 960x640. So I'm practically pushing the app's output to the max.

2. I did not reset the iPad before running the app :P

Quite impressed, would be interested to see what Epic Games turns this demo into.

Although I need to get rid of it after that because it was also a memory hog, weighing in at roughly 90MB of space. On the lowest end iPad in the market (16G WiFi only), that's a lot of real estate.