Epic Games has been on a middleware shopping spree of late, and it’s just added Rad Game Tools to its collection of software services. You’ll no doubt be familiar with the organisation for its Bink Video program, which was a hallmark of the PlayStation 2 era. However, the company also created the Oodle texture compression technology, which Sony is leveraging for the PlayStation 5.
The software will continue to be licensed to various game developers, but will also be integrated into the Unreal Engine. “Members of the Rad team will partner closely with Epic’s rendering, animation, insights, and audio teams, integrating key tech and improvements across Unreal Engine and beyond,” a statement said.
The Fortnite maker added: “Rad and Epic combining forces will allow even more developers access to tools that make their games load and download faster, and offer their players a better, higher quality video and gaming experience.”
To be honest, this is very much a feel good acquisition: the tools will still be available to everyone, and with Epic’s financial clout, only stand to get better. We’re really excited to see how Unreal Engine improves over the course of the generation, because that initial tech demo was mind-bogglingly beautiful.
