32 votes

A first look at Unreal Engine 5, including a real-time demo running on PS5

50 comments

  1. [14]
    asoftbird
    Link
    I'd like to add that I saw this video like half an hour ago and I'm still fully shocked. Every time you think they've hit the peak, they go further with more insane features. Amazing how this kind...

    I'd like to add that I saw this video like half an hour ago and I'm still fully shocked. Every time you think they've hit the peak, they go further with more insane features. Amazing how this kind of stuff is possible nowadays.

    Yes, it's a tech demo, but even if something half as good as this ends up in consumer games I'd be more than amazed.

    11 votes
    1. [12]
      Grzmot
      Link Parent
      Only thing that worries me are file sizes. The biggest game right now is CoD Modern Warfare at about 180GB and most consumers don't care. This could mean either a move back to physical media if...

      Only thing that worries me are file sizes. The biggest game right now is CoD Modern Warfare at about 180GB and most consumers don't care. This could mean either a move back to physical media if file sizes keep increasing or a streaming approach over the internet similar to how the new Flight Simulator from Microsoft is rendering the entire planet.

      10 votes
      1. scrambo
        Link Parent
        This was my first reaction (after being extremely impressed first) as well. Games are already huge, and I can see installation size BALLOONING if we're storing game objects with huge LOD's

        This was my first reaction (after being extremely impressed first) as well. Games are already huge, and I can see installation size BALLOONING if we're storing game objects with huge LOD's

        4 votes
      2. [7]
        Greg
        Link Parent
        At risk of sounding dismissive, should those consumers care? At current prices (around £16/TB for spinning disk), storing Modern Warfare will cost you less than £3. It's not nothing, but in the...

        At risk of sounding dismissive, should those consumers care? At current prices (around £16/TB for spinning disk), storing Modern Warfare will cost you less than £3. It's not nothing, but in the context of what you're paying for the game itself and the rest of the hardware to run it, it's not something that'd really concern me.

        3 votes
        1. [5]
          Nodja
          Link Parent
          While internet speeds have improved, you still have to wait 3-5 hours for the download to finish for some of these games (on a 100Mbit/s connection). Also possibly blowing 1/5 of your monthly...
          1. While internet speeds have improved, you still have to wait 3-5 hours for the download to finish for some of these games (on a 100Mbit/s connection). Also possibly blowing 1/5 of your monthly internet cap in one day, not to mention rural areas that don't even have 10Mbit/s and have no access to the game for several days because the game requires a several dozen GB patch every other week.

          2. Future consoles will require SSDs, which are currently ~$100/TB for a version that is at least 5x slower than what's shipping with the consoles.

          Merge 1 and 2 together and you've got a cumbersome system where you have limited storage space and can't really just delete and redownload because it takes many hours to do so.

          So I think that yes. consumers should care that games are blowing up in size and ask developers to tone it down a notch for next gen.

          7 votes
          1. [3]
            sqew
            Link Parent
            I wonder if we'll see them allow an option to use the expansion slots on the new consoles for big spinning disk drives. I know at least the new XBOX has a slot meant for expansion SSDs that's...

            I wonder if we'll see them allow an option to use the expansion slots on the new consoles for big spinning disk drives. I know at least the new XBOX has a slot meant for expansion SSDs that's thought to be essentially an externally available PCIe slot. Seems like Microsoft might be able to make a buck by building a way to run 2TB HDDs off of that for people's massive games.

            1 vote
            1. [2]
              Nodja
              Link Parent
              MS has come out and said they'll support slower media for old games (anything before XSX). On Sony's side they'll only support m.2 SSD's that are at least as fast has the one the PS5 has (5.5GB/s)

              MS has come out and said they'll support slower media for old games (anything before XSX).

              On Sony's side they'll only support m.2 SSD's that are at least as fast has the one the PS5 has (5.5GB/s)

              1 vote
              1. sqew
                Link Parent
                Wow. M.2 SSDs have gotten a ton cheaper in the last few years, but PCIe Gen4 ones like what the PS5 has are not cheap or easy to come by. That sucks on their part. Only upside I can see is that...

                Wow. M.2 SSDs have gotten a ton cheaper in the last few years, but PCIe Gen4 ones like what the PS5 has are not cheap or easy to come by. That sucks on their part. Only upside I can see is that maybe massive demand for more of them from console owners will help drag prices down.

                1 vote
          2. Greg
            Link Parent
            All fair points. I'd hope that the next gen consoles will have an "archive to HDD" option: play the games from SSD, but allow you to move them to a big old USB drive (which they'll both support...

            All fair points. I'd hope that the next gen consoles will have an "archive to HDD" option: play the games from SSD, but allow you to move them to a big old USB drive (which they'll both support anyway for previous gen games) for cold storage, rather than uninstalling completely. If that's not an option, then yeah, definitely problem number one right there.

            Patches and data caps, I'm with you. The former have no reason to be that big, the latter have no reason to exist at all.

            Game sizes as a whole, I'm still ambivalent. I want the best possible asset quality, and since those are the vast majority of the file size it seems as though something would have to be compromised to reduce it.

            1 vote
        2. Grzmot
          Link Parent
          No one's buying HDDs anymore unless they want to hoard data. If you want to play games, especially games like that tech demo, you'll need SSDs. Besides, I don't want to continually keep buying...

          At current prices (around £16/TB for spinning disk), storing Modern Warfare will cost you less than £3.

          No one's buying HDDs anymore unless they want to hoard data. If you want to play games, especially games like that tech demo, you'll need SSDs. Besides, I don't want to continually keep buying SSDs when compression exists. The argument that storing COD will cost me 3 GPB is moot anyway, because I can't buy a 180GB HDD for 3 bucks, nor would I want to. I bought a 500GB SSD last year specifically for games. I already needed to push COD onto my datahoarder HDD because it's fucking absurd.

          While true that the cost compared to the rest of my hardware isn't as big, it still piles on. You need at least one OS SSD, that's at least 100 bucks ontop of your build and then if you want any capacity for games that's another 100 to 200 bucks and then maybe a HDD for your files... It adds up quick.

          3 votes
      3. nothis
        Link Parent
        They say they use Quixel megascans as a base but it seems to still be compressed on build? I don't really see how streaming could solve this in a fast-paced game with lots of eye-level detail (as...

        They say they use Quixel megascans as a base but it seems to still be compressed on build? I don't really see how streaming could solve this in a fast-paced game with lots of eye-level detail (as opposed to a flight sim), you'd need an insane internet connection, probably better than for video streaming.

      4. TheJorro
        Link Parent
        I'm not sure if most consumers don't care. The game's size is getting quite a lot of attention. Many launch PS4s and X1's are definitely feeling CODMW's size right now. It's enough of a situation...

        I'm not sure if most consumers don't care. The game's size is getting quite a lot of attention. Many launch PS4s and X1's are definitely feeling CODMW's size right now. It's enough of a situation that it's getting coverage in the gaming media:

        https://www.gamespot.com/articles/call-of-duty-modern-warfares-file-size-is-getting-/1100-6476643/

        https://screenrant.com/call-duty-modern-warfare-download-size-install-space/

        There was also a flat out apology from the devs about the overall size back in February.

        The MW subreddit has many posts about the filesize too.

    2. Omnicrola
      Link Parent
      I'm just starting to wade into the UE ecosystem and create some XR experiences. I also was gob-smacked by this video, and am still just amazed by it. I actually took a screenshot of the high-angle...

      I'm just starting to wade into the UE ecosystem and create some XR experiences. I also was gob-smacked by this video, and am still just amazed by it. I actually took a screenshot of the high-angle shot of the room full of statues in sunlight to use as a Zoom background, just so I can explain to people why that shot is amazing.

      1 vote
  2. [17]
    onyxleopard
    Link
    This is a visually impressive tech demo, but every time I see game engine demos, I am reminded of how different it is to get a bunch of high quality game assets from digital artists and put them...

    This is a visually impressive tech demo, but every time I see game engine demos, I am reminded of how different it is to get a bunch of high quality game assets from digital artists and put them inside what basically amounts to a simulation with a movable camera. It ends up being so far removed from what an actual fully developed game ends up being that it isn’t representative. This looks like really good technology if you want to make simulations with interactive cameras that can move around in the simulation and get the benefits of real-time, dynamic, global illumination. That is, this looks like a quantum leap in terms of getting real-time physical simulation of environments and light. And letting artists spend less time fiddling with assets to get them in-engine is definitely a good thing.

    What I’m more interested in seeing is, how does an engine like this scale in terms of letting game studios, large and small, ship the games that they envision. If it turns out that if you don’t have the resources to scan in real environment data from the ruins of a city or from a cave, how long does it take your artists to create the content at such high fidelity that the geometry still looks good in-game? Do people really want to experience cinematic walkthroughs of very realistic 3D spaces? That’s not what most video-games strive to be.

    Some things that stood out to me that didn’t demo so well? The character, who is the most dynamic thing on screen besides the lighting, doesn’t seem like the same level of detail as the environment. How much extra effort will it take artists to model, rig, and animate characters that don’t seem out of place in 3D worlds that are an order of magnitude higher fidelity than current-gen? Also, how much effort will it take to tweak the physical simulations to make them look equally high fidelity? The fluid simulation in the puddle the character walked through looked really out of place and much lower quality than the rest of the demo. There’s this weird trade-off of digital art in that, the more you defer to physical simulation, the more you get for free. But, if you defer things to the simulation, and the simulation fails to be accurate (or runs up into computational limitations), you can get these uncanny valley moments that totally take you out of the experience and remind you what you’re looking at is very much not real.

    I’m excited to see the games that try to make use of this tech, but I’m also skeptical that many studios will be able to take advantage of this to the extent demoed here. Simulating the real world with such high fidelity is inevitably going to lead to much higher costs in terms of artist time, and also in resources, like storage space for all the real geometry and material data that will be needed at the higher level of detail. If you give game devs unlimited budget in terms of technical limitations, you will start hitting other constraints (unless there is a market for $1,000 games that require equally absurd hardware to run them at high resolution and framerates).

    11 votes
    1. [2]
      asoftbird
      Link Parent
      For this there is Quixel Megascans, which is part of Unreal (free!). It's a team of people who travel the world to do exactly that kind of thing to provide super high quality materials anyone can...

      If it turns out that if you don’t have the resources to scan in real environment data from the ruins of a city or from a cave, how long does it take your artists to create the content at such high fidelity that the geometry still looks good in-game?

      For this there is Quixel Megascans, which is part of Unreal (free!). It's a team of people who travel the world to do exactly that kind of thing to provide super high quality materials anyone can use. It's used in this video as well.

      https://quixel.com/megascans/home

      When everything's free, there probably is a catch. It's probably Epic trying to bind gamedevs to their platform by offering all this crazy stuff for free, even only starting to ask for royalties after $1M in sales (or 1M times sold?). Unreal 4 is free for everyone to use, so even amateurs can pick it up and learn it (and probably will use this for their games later on). Can't program? No problem, there's a node based programming language.

      Some things that stood out to me that didn’t demo so well? The character, who is the most dynamic thing on screen besides the lighting, doesn’t seem like the same level of detail as the environment. How much extra effort will it take artists to model, rig, and animate characters that don’t seem out of place in 3D worlds that are an order of magnitude higher fidelity than current-gen?
      And regarding the character, I think it's currently still fairly hard to animate realistic humans without ending up in the uncanny valley. Using a cartooney style mitigates that though I agree she doesn't fit in the environment she's in.

      And yeah, I think storage space is an issue since those 33 million tris aren't going to take up a few MB on your drives.

      In any way, it provides a very powerful framework that, even if developers don't utilize fully, would probably create some really good-looking games.

      6 votes
      1. onyxleopard
        Link Parent
        If you want real-looking assets, that does seem efficient in a way. But, how much work would it be to produce, say, the world of Red Dead Redemption 3 in this way? Or, how would you produce...

        If you want real-looking assets, that does seem efficient in a way. But, how much work would it be to produce, say, the world of Red Dead Redemption 3 in this way? Or, how would you produce pseudo-random dungeons/maps a la the Diablo series?

        2 votes
    2. [3]
      SunSpotter
      Link Parent
      You're the first person I've noticed talk about the water and character detail. I don't want to be a debbie downer in light of the frankly amazing environmental graphics, but the fluid simulation...

      You're the first person I've noticed talk about the water and character detail. I don't want to be a debbie downer in light of the frankly amazing environmental graphics, but the fluid simulation really didn't look like much of an improvement over current gen, and the character looks...oddly cartoonish? At least compared to such photo realistic terrain.

      4 votes
      1. Wes
        (edited )
        Link Parent
        Those two things seemed off to me too, so I'm glad to know I'm not alone. The environments themselves were fabulous. I'm sure there's some tricky involved to pull it off at a reasonable framerate....

        Those two things seemed off to me too, so I'm glad to know I'm not alone.

        The environments themselves were fabulous. I'm sure there's some tricky involved to pull it off at a reasonable framerate. Though I did find the detail of the cave to be a little wasted when it was all just grey and brown. I was more impressed by the city above. I can definitely see myself wanting to explore when that much detail is on display.

        Also, I also don't know if it was video compression but I swear there were micro stutters when the character was moving near the beginning.

        1 vote
      2. onyxleopard
        Link Parent
        Yeah, I’m pretty sure the difference is that the pipeline for creating those assets had less attention paid to it. This is a demo, after all, not a finished product, and if they don’t have...

        Yeah, I’m pretty sure the difference is that the pipeline for creating those assets had less attention paid to it. This is a demo, after all, not a finished product, and if they don’t have particular effects artists on hand to work on the water, or didn’t have the budget or talent for a better character model/animation it’s OK.

        There are modelers and animators who make photo-real animations for movies and pre-rendered cut scenes, so I don’t doubt that it’s possible to achieve the same caliber as the environments, it’s just that much more work (and maybe will require new workflows for scanning in real world assets, motion capture data, etc.).

    3. [11]
      NaraVara
      Link Parent
      Isn't this basically what the Uncharted series is?

      Do people really want to experience cinematic walkthroughs of very realistic 3D spaces?

      Isn't this basically what the Uncharted series is?

      1 vote
      1. [10]
        onyxleopard
        Link Parent
        I haven’t played that series, myself. Maybe that is appealing and there is a market for that kind of thing. But, I’d argue that it’s certainly not what most games strive to be.

        I haven’t played that series, myself. Maybe that is appealing and there is a market for that kind of thing. But, I’d argue that it’s certainly not what most games strive to be.

        1. [9]
          NaraVara
          Link Parent
          I mean Uncharted, Last of Us, Horizon Zero Dawn*, Tomb Raider, Assassin's Creed. . . I think basically any game that isn't a fighting game or a fast-paced FPS could basically qualify. Even the PS4...

          I mean Uncharted, Last of Us, Horizon Zero Dawn*, Tomb Raider, Assassin's Creed. . . I think basically any game that isn't a fighting game or a fast-paced FPS could basically qualify. Even the PS4 SpiderMan game is largely a cinematic swing-through of a 3D space. This is a big part of what AAA gaming is.

          2 votes
          1. [8]
            onyxleopard
            (edited )
            Link Parent
            There are tons of AAA games that don’t simulate realistic 3D environments. Looking at the top 10 best-selling PC games, I see 4/10: Realistic 3D World Unrealistic 3D World Other PlayerUknown’s...

            There are tons of AAA games that don’t simulate realistic 3D environments. Looking at the top 10 best-selling PC games, I see 4/10:

            Realistic 3D World Unrealistic 3D World Other
            PlayerUknown’s Battelgrounds Minecraft Terraria
            The Sims Diablo III
            Garry’s Mod World of Warcraft
            Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 Starcraft
            Half-Life 2

            If you open it up to all best-selling video games, the only realistic 3D game worlds are for PUBG and GTA V, so the number drops to 2/10. I’m interested how much the other 60-80% of games can benefit from this engine.

            Edit: I’m not saying this engine can’t enable other gaming experiences, I just think it’s interesting that the tech demo doesn’t address that concern at all.

            1. [2]
              Akir
              Link Parent
              For basically everything on your realistic column except PUBG, I would actually say aren't designed to actually look realistic. Sure, they are modeled on the real world, but they have an artistic...

              For basically everything on your realistic column except PUBG, I would actually say aren't designed to actually look realistic. Sure, they are modeled on the real world, but they have an artistic aesthetic.

              2 votes
              1. onyxleopard
                Link Parent
                This tech demo had an artistic aesthetic, too, I think. The more major point is just that, aside from certain subsets of environments, and games, the affordance of being able to take in scans of...

                This tech demo had an artistic aesthetic, too, I think. The more major point is just that, aside from certain subsets of environments, and games, the affordance of being able to take in scans of real-world environments may not actually be that valuable (at least not without significant additional work by artists on top—which is evident in the demo as well).

                1 vote
            2. [3]
              NaraVara
              Link Parent
              This list isn't really what anyone is talking about when they talk about AAA console gaming. For one thing, none of these games were designed for consoles, and the ones that are even playable on...

              This list isn't really what anyone is talking about when they talk about AAA console gaming. For one thing, none of these games were designed for consoles, and the ones that are even playable on consoles were ports.

              Aside from Half-Life 2, not a single thing on that list would have been a "AAA" title. Terraria, PUBG, Garry's Mod, and Minecraft were all indie titles when they were developed. The Sims and Roller Coaster Tycoon are both aimed at casual audiences and not core-gamers, these would be the equivalent of a B-movie, not a AAA effort. And even the ones that would count are all Blizzard games, whose sales numbers largely come from long-tail sales over their lifetimes rather than being big blockbusters out the gate.

              1 vote
              1. [2]
                onyxleopard
                Link Parent
                I’m sorry, but why are we restricting the conversation to AAA console games? Is Unreal Engine only supposed to be for AAA console game developers?

                I’m sorry, but why are we restricting the conversation to AAA console games?

                Is Unreal Engine only supposed to be for AAA console game developers?

                1. NaraVara
                  Link Parent
                  This demo is specifically about Unreal running on a PS5. The major consoles are also where most of the AAA development happens because it’s the largest market base.

                  This demo is specifically about Unreal running on a PS5.

                  The major consoles are also where most of the AAA development happens because it’s the largest market base.

                  1 vote
            3. [2]
              asoftbird
              Link Parent
              Interesting how you put Garry's mod on the realistic list and not HL2 considering the former is a mod for the latter.

              Interesting how you put Garry's mod on the realistic list and not HL2 considering the former is a mod for the latter.

              1. onyxleopard
                Link Parent
                Garry’s actually has a variety of different resources that it incorporates since there has been a lot of content created for the Source engine (TF2, HL2, CS, etc.). I was hesitant to put it in...

                Garry’s actually has a variety of different resources that it incorporates since there has been a lot of content created for the Source engine (TF2, HL2, CS, etc.). I was hesitant to put it in that column, but HL2 definitely went for a realistic look in the environments, vehicles. The SciFi elements do stretch outside, so I suppose you could put it in the second column, and you could put Garry’s mod in it too. (I was trying to argue a point, so I didn’t want to set up a straw man.)

  3. [11]
    nothis
    Link
    Wow, I'm genuinely floored. Frankly, I have gotten cynical about the progress in graphics engines over the couple last years but them basically "solving" polycounts, more or less removing them...

    Wow, I'm genuinely floored. Frankly, I have gotten cynical about the progress in graphics engines over the couple last years but them basically "solving" polycounts, more or less removing them from the equation, feels truly new. This reminds me of the Half-Life 2 engine demo around 2003.

    Can't help but notice, though:

    • No 60fps. I don't care one bit, especially since this has predictably flawless motion blur which, when done right, makes it look at least as smooth as any movie scene (also it should be trivial to cut content draw by half with probably a single preference value to achieve it). I'm mostly smirking at how upset the 4K/60fps crowd will get at this. I prefer visual quality over 60fps, at least in "cinematic games".
    • No raytracing. You can see the screen space reflection bug out when she's holding her arm in front of the water around 3:50. That's a bit disappointing but I'll happily take true real-time global illumination for that.
    10 votes
    1. [5]
      mrbig
      Link Parent
      I don’t even care about 4K, but 60fps is quite an improvement over 30fps.

      I don’t even care about 4K, but 60fps is quite an improvement over 60fps 30fps.

      7 votes
      1. LukeZaz
        Link Parent
        🤔 In all seriousness, I'm absolutely with you on this. I recently upgraded my CPU and so I finally got to experience the difference, and it felt amazing. Would much rather have 60fps over 4k any day.

        but 60fps is quite an improvement over 60fps.

        🤔

        In all seriousness, I'm absolutely with you on this. I recently upgraded my CPU and so I finally got to experience the difference, and it felt amazing. Would much rather have 60fps over 4k any day.

        3 votes
      2. [3]
        rmgr
        Link Parent
        I've been away from AAA gaming for a while and I was surprised that in the Halo community everybody was losing their shit because the game ONLY ran at 60fps, they were demanding 120fps which I...

        I've been away from AAA gaming for a while and I was surprised that in the Halo community everybody was losing their shit because the game ONLY ran at 60fps, they were demanding 120fps which I thought was interesting. (Short of CSGO which runs on a toaster, I've never thought about 120fps as remotely reasonable)

        1 vote
        1. mrbig
          Link Parent
          I never played on 120fps but people say it gives you an edge on multiplayer. I rarely play online myself and when I do I’m not competitive enough for that to matter. I just find 60fps in games...

          I never played on 120fps but people say it gives you an edge on multiplayer. I rarely play online myself and when I do I’m not competitive enough for that to matter.

          I just find 60fps in games pleasant.

        2. TheJorro
          Link Parent
          For the Master Chief Collection? They do run at 120 fps on PC, I've been playing them like that this whole time. Some animations are limited to 30 or 60 fps, sure, but I feel you'd have to go out...

          For the Master Chief Collection? They do run at 120 fps on PC, I've been playing them like that this whole time. Some animations are limited to 30 or 60 fps, sure, but I feel you'd have to go out of your way to consider that a major problem.

          But also 120 fps is totally doable, especially at 1920x1080. With my GTX1070, the majority of games I play are over 90 fps on average.

    2. [2]
      NaraVara
      Link Parent
      It kind of depends. I watched some footage of cut-scenes in Person 5 running at 60FPS and I found it to actually be really impressive in a context and art style where I wouldn't have expected it...

      I'm mostly smirking at how upset the 4K/60fps crowd will get at this. I prefer visual quality over 60fps, at least in "cinematic games".

      It kind of depends. I watched some footage of cut-scenes in Person 5 running at 60FPS and I found it to actually be really impressive in a context and art style where I wouldn't have expected it to matter. It's not the make-or-break standard for what constitutes "good graphics" but I wouldn't write it off.

      5 votes
      1. nothis
        Link Parent
        The way they're describing the tech, I wouldn't be surprised if there's literally a switch that lets you either play in 4K or 60fps, sacrificing one. It sounds like polycount is becoming...

        The way they're describing the tech, I wouldn't be surprised if there's literally a switch that lets you either play in 4K or 60fps, sacrificing one. It sounds like polycount is becoming meaningless so it's just telling the engine to choose how much detail to render, in real time.

        2 votes
    3. [3]
      sqew
      Link Parent
      Am I missing something in the current link about 60FPS? I can't see anything in there. Wondering if it would just be for consoles or if people with high-powered PCs would also be limited even if...

      Am I missing something in the current link about 60FPS? I can't see anything in there. Wondering if it would just be for consoles or if people with high-powered PCs would also be limited even if their hardware could push out 4k 60+ FPS.

      1 vote
      1. [2]
        nothis
        Link Parent
        Pretty sure that video was to prove it can actually run on next-gen baseline hardware with the PS5. You could probably run it at 120fps with the right PC hardware (which might or might not exist).

        Pretty sure that video was to prove it can actually run on next-gen baseline hardware with the PS5. You could probably run it at 120fps with the right PC hardware (which might or might not exist).

        1. sqew
          Link Parent
          I figured, just wanted to make sure. It would seem crazy to me if Epic was trying to tell PC people that they could only play at max 60FPS, but crazier things have also happened in the game industry.

          I figured, just wanted to make sure. It would seem crazy to me if Epic was trying to tell PC people that they could only play at max 60FPS, but crazier things have also happened in the game industry.

  4. [2]
    LukeZaz
    Link
    Am I the only one who doesn't really care? I mean sure, it looked real pretty, but so did most of the AAA games I've played lately. It feels like we're really nearing the peak on how much graphics...

    Am I the only one who doesn't really care? I mean sure, it looked real pretty, but so did most of the AAA games I've played lately. It feels like we're really nearing the peak on how much graphics improvements will really matter, and to be honest I don't really expect that I'd notice the extra triangles pretty much at all unless I was specifically trying to. The lighting and physics and animation stuff seem more interesting, but still don't look like they'd make or break any game for me.

    5 votes
    1. mrbig
      Link Parent
      Yes my taste in graphics have been met with the PS4 Pro. It’s pretty enough for me. I do enjoy richer worlds with more elements and a higher framerate.

      Yes my taste in graphics have been met with the PS4 Pro. It’s pretty enough for me. I do enjoy richer worlds with more elements and a higher framerate.

      3 votes
  5. [2]
    Deimos
    Link
    Digital Foundry published an article and video with their impressions of this demo: Article: This is next-gen: see Unreal Engine 5 running on PlayStation 5 Video: DF Direct: PlayStation 5 / Unreal...

    Digital Foundry published an article and video with their impressions of this demo:

    4 votes
    1. Deimos
      Link Parent
      And they've published another article and video today with more depth now that they've had more time to analyze: Article: Inside Unreal Engine 5: how Epic delivers its generational leap Video:...

      And they've published another article and video today with more depth now that they've had more time to analyze:

      1 vote
  6. [2]
    wycy
    Link
    It's interesting how difficult it is to make a convincing CGI human face. Everything in the demo looks absolutely incredible to me except the face.

    It's interesting how difficult it is to make a convincing CGI human face. Everything in the demo looks absolutely incredible to me except the face.

    1 vote
    1. gamu242
      Link Parent
      Aren't the Hellblade 2 devs using some kind of facial tech that aims for fully realistic animations? The animations in the Hellblade 2 trailer were very realistic but it was in-engine so I don't...

      Aren't the Hellblade 2 devs using some kind of facial tech that aims for fully realistic animations? The animations in the Hellblade 2 trailer were very realistic but it was in-engine so I don't know if that can carry over to the full game.

      Also seems Epic acquired the company that makes the tech in March.

  7. aethicglass
    (edited )
    Link
    To point out a few concerns I've noticed from people: Raytracing: GI is a form of ray tracing. Ray tracing is basically selective forms of path tracing (think "unbiased" renderers like blender and...

    To point out a few concerns I've noticed from people:

    Raytracing: GI is a form of ray tracing. Ray tracing is basically selective forms of path tracing (think "unbiased" renderers like blender and c4d). The more form of raytracing that are added, the closer to unbiased the engine becomes. But also the more intensive the load. It's a balancing act to find a sweet spot where the engine doesn't stutter out of realtime but it's still a useful tool for developers. GI is the the most useful trick in the book because baked lighting and "traditional" dynamic lighting both present challenges that must be overcome in order to look right. GI looks amazing 90% of the time right from the get-go.

    Character looks blah: Despite what they were saying about LODs, they're talking about static meshes. Deforming a multi-million poly mesh is amazingly process intensive feat. Character likely still need to have baked displacement/bump onto lower poly mesh in order to animate smoothly. So the benefit of those amazingly high poly static meshes does not apply to anything being animated, most likely. Additionally, the character is slightly stylized. That was an art decision somewhere along the line. They went for the left side of the uncanny valley instead of trying to climb out the right side. It was a conservative decision, but that's likely because the character mesh/animation was not a feature being showcased, but rather a necessary part of the presentation that they just needed to not stand out too much. The attention is focused elsewhere.

    Is it more work for higher detail levels? These changes don't necessitate devs to utilize them. Pipelines can remain the same or they can evolve alongside the new features, it's entirely up to the devs. But the new LOD system appears to be designed to work hand-in-hand with the recently acquired quixel assets. They are absolutely amazing to work with and are some of the highest quality assets you can get your hands on, and they're included and well-integrated into the engine. They're giving devs more tools to work with. That may equate to more work, it may mean less work. It's highly variable depending on the project and its desired look and feel, and what approach the developers need to take in order to achieve the results they'd like. Regardless, these have the potential to be pretty fundamentally awesome new tools to play around with.

    (side note: I've only started learning unreal recently. I'm not interested in gamedev, I'm mostly learning it for vfx purposes. And the GI and new LOD system are absolutely amazing for vfx. Unreal is becoming more and more of a viable engine for realtime photorealistic vfx.)

    Edit: Oh! I forgot about the water sim. You can tell they didn't want to spend much time on it because it's still a bit uncanny valley. But honestly, any progress on fluid sim is good. There is a huge wide uncanny valley with fluid physics, and it's mind blowingly processor intensive to get results that even approach the uphill climb out of weird-looking. If you see fluid sim that looks good, it's baked. If you see fluid sim that's realtime, it's weird. But take the progress at face value, even if it looks odd still it's likely progress nonetheless.

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