Anyone who has doubts about the ability of the humble web browser to become a games platform of distinction need look no further than this new Epic Citadel demo featuring the Unreal Engine to see where things are heading.
The demo is only a walk through of a town environment, but if you look at the gorgeous interiors and detailed graphics on the exterior scenes you will appreciate just how amazing the new HTML5/Javascript combination integrated in modern browsers really is. The whole thing is rendered to a quality level that was only available with the very highest resolution of games engines just a few years ago.
The demo runs in Firefox and Chrome (with limited support for Safari and Opera) and with a decent powered computer the frame rates are very impressive, at around 40fps at least on our test. Of course walk through demos are not the same as fully populated game environments with AI and all the other frills, but this taster is definitely enough to make us want to see more. Take a look and see what you think.
If you get bored using the traditional mouse and keyboard, there’s an automated tour you can access by clicking on the top icon inside the demo.