Pixel Mine, Inc. today announced that nFringe, formerly known as Unreal Script Studio, is now integrated with Epic Games' Unreal Engine 3 (UE3), the industry leading game engine for cross-platform game development. As a member of Epic's premiere Integrated Partners Program (IPP), Pixel Mine has developed a production-ready nFringe integration, which is now available to publishers and developers licensing UE3.
Recognized as a Best Tool winner in Epic's $1 Million Intel Make Something Unreal Contest, nFringe includes the first UnrealScript source-level debugger to successfully tie into the familiar Visual Studio experience. It includes support for breakpoints, stepping, locals, user watches, the Immediate window, and the Quick Watch window. It is available from Pixel Mine under a dual end-user license for commercial users and for non-commercial academic or modding purposes.
Sam Harwell, lead programmer on nFringe, said, "A core requirement in the development of nFringe was seamless integration. nFringe ties into existing Visual Studio commands, menu options, and keyboard shortcuts so developers can focus on developing great UE3 titles." To that end, nFringe works with little or no modifications to most of Epic Games' code drops in the last 18 months.
"We are excited to join the Unreal Engine partners program," remarked David Reese, president of Pixel Mine. "This program will give us the opportunity to realize powerful new features in nFringe that would otherwise be impossible."
"Unreal Engine 3's successful adoption by the industry has been driven by our award-winning development tools and content pipeline," said Dr. Michael Capps, president of Epic Games. "Pixel Mine licensed our engine and developed a great set of internal tools to help their programmers leverage the power of UnrealScript. Integrated debuggers can have a major impact on iteration times, and we're glad to see nFringe packaged for use by other game teams."
Epic Games' Integrated Partners Program (IPP) establishes a formal business relationship with exceptional companies making cross-platform technologies which integrate with, and are complementary to, UE3. Under the IPP, Epic provides continuous UE3 source code access and full technical support to IPP members. Companies who join the IPP agree to provide a high level of technical support for UE3 licensees through Epic's established support channels, keep their implementations up-to-date with the latest engine versions and collaborate with Epic on potential promotional and co-marketing efforts.