Epic Games' Unreal Engine, which powers games like Gears of War, Bioshock, and Infinity Blade among many others, is officially coming to Mac OS X in the September 2011 beta of the Unreal Development Kit (UDK).

The announcement notes that UDK support for OS X is just a "preview" of its OS X support, but when support is finally implemented in full it should help developers target multiple platforms more easily with their releases, as Valve is currently doing with its Source Engine-based games.

Further down in the post is some other news that should be interesting to iOS gamers: the kit enables multi-display support for iOS devices via HDMI and AirPlay, meaning that (with developer support) you can play Unreal-based games on a TV or other display. A niche feature for now, but one with interesting potential implications for the future.

Source: Unreal Development Kit site

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  • Pessimism - Tuesday, September 20, 2011 - link

    Mac gamers everywhere will be able to enjoy the best that 1998 has to offer.
  • jordanclock - Tuesday, September 20, 2011 - link

    That joke might have made sense 10 years ago, but today there are plenty of games that come out for Mac AND they have the hardware to run them.
  • retrospooty - Tuesday, September 20, 2011 - link

    "That joke might have made sense 10 years ago, but today there are plenty of games that come out for Mac AND they have the hardware to run them. "

    They do have the hardware, yet still run 40-60% slower than comparable equpped PC's with the exact same hardware. Check reviews and benchmarks
  • B3an - Tuesday, September 20, 2011 - link

    Yeah and the OS to run them... 50% slower. Lulz.

    ...IF it can even run them in the first place. OSX supports an old OpenGL version that has nothing on DX11.
  • Spivonious - Tuesday, September 20, 2011 - link

    The Unreal engine is used by many modern games. Mac users might not have the top-end graphics cards, but the hardware can definitely handle modern games on lower settings.
  • phatboye - Tuesday, September 20, 2011 - link

    COrrect me if I'm wrong but UE has always been able to run on Macs ever since the first engine. I do remember hearing rumors that there was some licensing problems with UE3 that prevented it from being released on Mac/Unix platforms but the engine has always been technically able to run on them.
  • ViRGE - Tuesday, September 20, 2011 - link

    Until now UE3 has never been available on the Mac. While the underpinnings may have been waiting in the wings, it's just now after 4 years that it's available to developers.
  • siberia.shalasaska - Wednesday, September 21, 2011 - link

    MAC supposely not built for hardcore-graphic-eater computer.

    it's only used for designing the SKIN overall.

    a simple analogue:

    Mac = create skin based on photoshop or any other software. |more like style
    Win = create and render naked object. |more like performance

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