Epic Games, Inc. has announced the launch of the Unreal Development Kit (UDK), a free edition of Unreal Engine 3 that provides community access to the game engine and toolset.
The software release is available to anyone interested in using 3D game engine technology, including game developers, students, hobbyists, researchers, creators of 3D visualizations and simulations, and digital filmmakers:
There is no charge for noncommercial or educational use of UDK. Over 100 academic campuses currently use Unreal Technology as part of teaching game development-related courses.
Anyone can start working with the industry-leading Unreal Engine 3 toolset by downloading UDK at www.udk.com, where detailed product features, technical documentation, commercial licensing terms, support resources and more are also available. This is quite an interesting development as it could enable some neat architectural ports into the engine.