Unreal Engine 5 Announced, Watch The Gameplay Demo Running On A PlayStation 5

Epic Games not only unveiled their new tech engine Unreal Engine 5 but also gave us a good real look at the PlayStation 5’s potential by running a real-time demo on the unreleased system using the new game engine. Check out the 9-minute presentation below.

Lumen in the Land of Nanite is what the demo is called and highlights the new Unreal engine’s options for developers when developing their games in this new tool. The two core features are called Nanite and Lumen.

The Nanite technology is the cause of the crazy detail you witnessed in the presentation below. The Nanite virtualized geometry comprises of millions of polygons. “The artist doesn’t have to be concerned about poly counts, draw calls, or memory, you could directly use film-quality assets and bring them straight to the engine.” says Technical Director of Graphics Brian Karis at Epic Games. With this feature, developers will be able to retain detailed quality without sacrificing frame rates.

Lumen is the other core feature for Unreal Engine 5 and is a fully dynamic global illumination solution that reacts on game assets and light changes. Lumen was greatly demonstrated when the character in the demo entered a dark passageway then lights the path with her orb showing how light reflects to metal assets and how other assets like the insects react to the illumination. We see more of Lumen in effect when light penetrates the path when holes were made above thanks to falling debris.

Together with the reveal of Unreal Engine 5, Epic announced that the matchmaking and social services featured in the free-to-play title Fortnite is now available for all game developers to use in their projects. Royalty fees on all games using Unreal Engine will be waived up to the first $1 million in game revenue.

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Writer’s take: The demonstration above shows not only what the next generation of consoles are capable of but how games will be developed in the future. It’s exciting to see what will be possible in the next 2-3 years once developers are well-versed on how to fully utilize these new tools and hopefully we see the potential of engines like the Unreal Engine 5 when next-gen consoles hit stores later this year.(assuming no delays occur)

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