Talk:Unreal Engine 3

Supported platforms list

Wondering if "Linux" should really be in the supported platforms list. The UDK specifically states that it does not support Linux, and the only Unreal Engine 3 game to have a Linux port even started on it (Unreal Tournament 3), the Linux port was never released and has been cancelled. Therefore, I see no evidence of actual Linux support. To that end, I see no evidence of Wii U, Adobe Flash, Playstation Vita, or Android support either. Are people just adding platforms they wish/think will be supported in the future? 74.106.78.253 (talk) 01:25, 12 February 2012 (UTC)

UDK and Unreal Engine 3 are not the same thing:

1. Unreal Engine 3. http://www.unrealengine.com/platforms/ - official list of all supported platforms. Any platform that not listed there should be deleted.

2. UDK. Development tools runs only on Windows, but you can build applications for Windows, iOS and OS X.

I guess both Unreal Engine 3 and UDK provide development tools only for Windows, but can build applications for multiple platforms.Cre-ker (talk) 16:21, 12 February 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for the clarification. I removed Linux and Wii U from the platform list on the article, since they're not on the site you linked, and I can see no other proof of actual support. I mostly wanted to correct this because a game developer friend of mine became confused and thought that he could develop Linux games using the Unreal Engine, which doesn't seem possible at the moment. 74.106.85.55 (talk) 23:43, 13 February 2012 (UTC)

Wii U support

May be we should wait until Wii U is properly announced? At this moment Wii U is just a brand as Nintendo didn't shared specs, photos, nothing. Only speculation and some photos of the strange box that can be just a prototype of the Wii U. Even Nintendo's official site doesn't have Wii U page. More over, there is no evidence on the Unreal Engine's official site that Wii U is supported. The only thing that confirms this is the GDC 2012 video of the UE3. Cre-ker (talk) 15:38, 10 March 2012 (UTC)

DirectX vs. Direct3D

DirectX is a suite that contains a number APIs, Direct3D being one of them. A game that uses any of the included APIs, be it audio, input, etc. can be said to be using that version of "DirectX", even if it doesn't use Direct3D and instead uses, say, OpenGL for rendering. The correct, technical term when the aim is to talk about the render API is "Direct3D". Unfortunately the terms have been wrongly used interchangeably for a long time. I made that edit to reflect the correct usage, which was reverted. If you disagree, then it's fine by me; I don't insist on it. Eddman (talk) 00:07, 1 June 2026 (UTC)

Yeah, I agree, "Direct3D" is more correct. But the term DirectX is so much more common that I think it would be confusing to use it. Even the creator of Unreal himself uses that term, and we have a quote from him in the article using it. And even technically minded projects interchange these terms (eg. DXVK, at least in the name, obviously the developers are aware of the difference). So it would just be confusing to use Direct3D in my opinion. Similar to the reasoning behind WP:COMMONNAME. In fact the existence of both DirectX and Direct3D as separate articles is also rather confusing, and graphics APIs are discussed pretty heavily in the DirectX article. Maybe those articles should be cleaned up or even merged. J2UDY7r00CRjH (talk) 00:44, 1 June 2026 (UTC)

Using DirectX instead of Direct3D actually perpetuates the confusion, not help it. Something being common doesn't really justify a wrong usage. When DirectX was first launched, it didn't even have Direct3D. The unnecessary interchangeable usage of the terms over the years have done a lot of damage, specially when it comes to the older versions. As one example, this habit has caused tons of problems for PCGamingWiki, where people were/are populating the Direct3D field purely based on the DirectX version mentioned in the reqs or readme files, which resulted in thousands of wrong entries that are still being cleared up. A lot of people seemingly have no idea they are not actually synonyms. The correct usage on a place like Wikipedia would help to educate people over time. There is no need the merge the articles as they talk about completely different things.

Having some Direct3D information on the DirectX article is not a problem, given that it is the major component, but the purely Direct3D related details are on the Direct3D article. It is major enough to have its own article. Eddman (talk) 01:31, 1 June 2026 (UTC)

Maybe add something like "Unreal 3 moved to DirectX 9 and its accompanying Direct3D 9 graphics library," linking to both articles, and keep the quote as "DirectX 9," as that's what he said.

>Having some Direct3D information on the DirectX article is not a problem

Not a correctness problem, but it does add to the confusion, especially as written currently. Eg:

>One of the key features introduced in DirectX 9 was Shader Model 2.0

>It also introduced HLSL, which provided a more accessible way for developers to produce shaders.

Unless you are already familiar, it is not obvious that these are referring to Direct3D. And if you say it's not a problem in the example above because it is technically true, as direct3D is part of DirectX, then it is also technically true in the UE3 article (and elsewhere). J2UDY7r00CRjH (talk) 02:15, 1 June 2026 (UTC)

If one fully reads the DX and D3D articles, the difference quickly becomes obvious, and that shaders are in relation to D3D. I just changed a few parts of the DX article so that it's more clear.

> And if you say it's not a problem in the example above because it is technically true

I specifically talked about having Direct3D being written about on the DirectX article, because it's simply not possible to omit it. It's part of the suite. The in-depth details are reserved for the Direct3D article.

I changed the instances on this article because the subject is Direct3D specifically, and not DirectX as a whole.

There's no rush; it can stay as is until others chime in. Eddman (talk) 12:36, 1 June 2026 (UTC)