Epic Games Releases January 2012 Unreal Development Kit Beta
 Epic Games, Inc. has released the January 2012 Unreal Development Kit  Beta,  the latest version of the free edition of Unreal Engine 3  that  provides access to the award-winning 3D game engine and toolset used in   blockbuster video game development, architectural visualization, mobile  game  development, 3D rendering, digital films and more. The latest UDK  beta is  available now at www.udk.com/download.
  Unreal Engine Showcase: Chivalry: Medieval Warfare
   
 
 Developed by Torn  Banner Studios using UDK, Chivalry:  Medieval Warfare is a multiplayer melee combat game that  was recently named a top pick in IndieDB’s  "Best Upcoming Game” category in its Indie of the  Year competition.  The studio’s president,  Steve Piggott, explained how UDK allows his  team to stay on the cutting edge of  visual technology thanks to regular  updates. “Instead of developing a game with  an engine for two years  and then releasing it with two-year-old technology,  developers have the  opportunity to launch with the latest version and keep  updating it  even after release. That's a really powerful thing.” Read more. 
 We have showcases of some of the most outstanding video game,  architectural visualization, and mobile apps using UDK at www.udk.com/showcase and www.unrealengine.com/showcase.   Also be sure to check out the Works in Progress and the Released Projects forums.
  January UDK Beta Upgrade Notes
  Simplygon Mesh Proxy Tool
 - New Simplygon Merge Tool for combining static meshes 

 - Grouped static meshes can  be combined into a single static mesh
- This can greatly improve  rendering performance
- Materials/textures are automatically collapsed and new UVs are  generated
- This tool is fully "non-destructive" - you can modify meshes and  remerge, and roll back changes if needed
- Documentation  can be found here
Unreal Landscape
   - Allows  you to paint textures on static meshes interactively in the level viewport

   - Holes of any shape can be cut into  the landscape, allowing designers to create entrances to caverns and other  features under the landscape
- The visibility tool can remove  or replace individual quads at the highest LOD resolution, with collision  added or removed accordingly
- Holes are rendered per-pixel, independently of LOD, so distant  holes retain their shape
- Added the ability to save  foliage settings to packages and to share them between levels
- Added tool to change  component size for existing landscapes
- Hide  unused landscape UI when no landscapes are available
Pivot Painter
   - A new 3ds Max tool that automatically  generates pivot points for mesh vertices, allowing for advanced foliage  animation and other effects

   - Documentation  can be found here
iOS Rendering
   - Added support for color  grading 

   - Documentation can  be found here
Unreal Editor 
   - Added a "Reconnect" button to the "Checkout  packages" dialog
- The function is disabled when a valid connection is established
- Upon reconnect, the login screen will appear if the connection  failed
- Once the connection is restored, the "Checkout" dialog  is reloaded
- Altered behavior of the  "Convert to Static Mesh" operation
- It not only builds a model from the selected static brushes
- It also builds dynamic brushes (which includes volumes) and builds  from the builder brush (if selected)
- It treats these as if they were like additive BSP brushes
- The autosave time is now simply  paused during PIE instead of reset
- The editor is now more responsive during lighting builds
- Added a context menu option when selecting multiple actors for  assigning the material selected from the content browser
- Auto content saving is now enabled  by default for new users and 'content packages to save' can now be specified  in the ini
- Lens flare visualizations will now  appear when a lens flare actor is created and will update if any  visualization properties are changed on the template lens flare
- Made the color picker dialog not modal when changing  preview background color for textures
- Unreal Matinee slow-mo tracks will no longer effect viewports in  other sub-editor windows (such as Unreal Cascade)
- Made the wireframe rendering in orthographic viewports consistent  in both DX9 and DX11
- New packages in Unreal Content Browser are now  removed from the “New Packages” collection once they've been saved 
- Fixed the “Touch Input Kismet” event in Unreal  Kismet so that it sends the proper X and Y values
- When  in Kismet’s hit-testing mode, the Kismet block nubs are  drawn bigger to make  them easier to select without taking up more  screen space visually
- Enabled  the “Paste Here” right-click menu option for nodes in the  Material Editor
Misc