It’s quickly becoming a drag-n-drop (virtual) world. From an article over on Gamespot news, “Epic shows off Unreal tools ” (Link):

Willard showed off a level whose appearance was easily altered using the engine’s ability to link together multiple shader effects with an easy click-and-drag interface…
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Epic’s post-processing editor gives artists a simple way to create shader effects without relying on a programmer to implement each effect. The tool is a graphical user interface that lets the artist select and attach pre-built shader effects to game graphics.
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Willard also demonstrated the Unreal Engine 3 Kismet system, a scripting tool that allows the designer to schedule game events in a flow-chart-like format.

That shader system sounds a lot like Maya’s amazing Hypershade system, which always blows my mind when I get into it. And that Kismet system sounds like something with which I’d like to play.

The tools just keep getting easier. I just wish I had access to and use of a high-level PLM system. Imagine doing the 3D, having the equivalent of a Kismet for electronic circuitry and programming, then fabbing the parts and downloading the code to put a physical device in motion?

How this all starts to play out is going to be fascinating.

via Blue’s News