Kingdom Hearts co-director Tai Yasue gives keynote speech at the 2019 Game Developers Conference, explains Unreal Engine 4's technical benefits for Kingdom Hearts III

[Raxaimus 300]

As part of Epic Games' "State of Unreal" presentation during the 2019 Game Developers Conference, Kingdom Hearts series co-director Tai Yasue gave a brief keynote statement about the development of Kingdom Hearts III, detailing the technical advantages that Unreal Engine 4 provided.

Yasue spoke about Kingdom Hearts III's basic gameplay systems, the animation process for the game's special effects,  and the technical features that Unreal Engine 4 provided, including volumetric clouds, water effects, and lighting, which can all be easily changed to suit the different environments of each world.

Alongside this speech, testing and development footage was shown. This footage included Sora and a player-controlled Rapunzel roaming around a test room in a showcase of their movement, the clouds of Olympus being given different shapes and volumes, the waves of The Caribbean changing in intensity, and the lighting of the Kingdom of Corona lantern scene changing with the placement of additional lanterns. All of these adjustments were done in real-time as the game was running, showcasing the flexibility of the engine.

What did you think of Tai Yasue's brief presentation? Do you hope to see the Kingdom Hearts team utilize Unreal Engine in even bolder ways in the future? Let us know in the comments below!

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[Novayon 192]

Was neat to see how the different environments were created. I especially liked the Caribbean waves showcase.

[RikuFangirl2008 1,368]

I have to say the lanterns part and Rapunzel's hair interactions are pretty nice! 

[Compute 0]

Found the video on Youtube for anyone interested: 

 

[Dustin Lübbers 933]

Like the behind the scenes stuff

Seems like its to early to say how the Future looks like of the series