insane. . .
This week, Epic Games released the first tech-demo for their upcoming new Unreal Engine 5 engine running on the PlayStation 5. This was the first official gameplay glimpse at what both systems can do, which are set to release later this year around the holidays.
The jaw-dropping visuals and technology upgrades, showcased global illumination for the first time on a gaming platform. This is something that hasn’t even reached PC yet (currently better than high-end PCs), as well as the new particle elements were also displayed.
Developers issued a statement saying, “I think a lot of people will ask, ‘Oh is the demo real?’ But you know that demo was grabbed from the back of a PlayStation 5 development kit. An HDMI cable went into a disc recorder and played out real-time — no editing, no tricks, that’s what comes off the box.”
Epic Games has touted the UE5, being meant to do things that are absolutely not possible today. They also said they want to make game worlds as immersive and realistic, as modern movies. This may seem a bit off to some people, who don’t believe this is possible, but that’s the entire emphasis of the new game engine. The software isn’t expected to release until 2021, which hasn’t been optimized.
Well, behind-the-scenes, Microsoft is saying that this technology is already possible on the Xbox Series X, but they said will be more powerful on their console, for upcoming titles. This is where we expect their 12 teraflops GPU to really showcase its power, something they’ve been promoting for the console since its first detailed breakdown back in 2018.
Surprisingly, Microsoft hasn’t revealed technology like this for the Xbox Series X, but PS5 making the first punch will likely have them finally unveiling gameplay for the console next month.
Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) Tweeted:
Incredible work by the team at Epic @UnrealEngine, many of our XGS studios are using Unreal, like the team at Ninja Theory creating Hellblade II, and are excited to bring these UE5 innovations to life on Xbox Series X. https://t.co/nZlZMh8ezy— Sergio Gudino (@SergioGudino7) May 14, 2020
The demo demonstrates 2 core features of UE5: Lumen and Nanite.
Lumen is a fully dynamic global illumination solution that immediately reacts to scene and light changes. The system renders diffuse interreflection with infinite bounces and indirect specular reflections in huge, detailed environments, at scales ranging from kilometers to millimeters.
Nanite virtualized micropolygon geometry frees artists to create as much geometric detail as the eye can see. Nanite virtualized geometry means that film-quality source art comprising hundreds of millions or billions of polygons can be imported directly into Unreal Engine—anything from ZBrush sculpts to photogrammetry scans to CAD data—and it just works.