Unreal Engine tech demo

[x Tame Impala]

Amazing stuff

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[Osprey]

That's very impressive. The "Nanite" technology seems like it could be revolutionary. I'd love to be a map or model maker and not have to worry at all about polygon counts and whether a scene will cripple the framerate because I know that the engine will scale it down for me. I imagine that it does that on the fly, too, so that, the closer that the player is, the more of the full detail that he'd see (which has sort of been in 3D games forever, but not seamless and automatic like this). It should also make games look even better on future GPUs that can render more of the detail, helping to not make games look dated as quickly.

 

[Commander Clueless]

For as much guff as I like to give Epic for how feature-lacking their PC store is, their work with Unreal Engine is exemplary.

 

[Frankie Spankie]

As nice as this looks, it's just a tech demo. I saw a lot of people on Reddit gushing over how PS5 games are going to look like that. Let's see what the games using the engine actually look like. Afterall, this tech demo for Unreal engine 3 came out 9 years ago and it still looks better than most games out there:



This tech demo for UE4 came out 7 years ago and games still don't look this good:



I am glad they're focusing more on lighting though. After playing Metro Exodus with raytracing on, I was sold that raytracing and better lighting is the next step in gaming as far as graphics are concerned.

 

[aleshemsky83]

As nice as this looks, it's just a tech demo. I saw a lot of people on Reddit gushing over how PS5 games are going to look like that. Let's see what the games using the engine actually look like. Afterall, this tech demo for Unreal engine 3 came out 9 years ago and it still looks better than most games out there:



This tech demo for UE4 came out 7 years ago and games still don't look this good:



I am glad they're focusing more on lighting though. After playing Metro Exodus with raytracing on, I was sold that raytracing and better lighting is the next step in gaming as far as graphics are concerned.

To clarify, it's a tech demo running in real time on the ps5, people are putting it down like it's a pre rendered cutscene on a $5000 PC. That tech demo you linked was running on 4 GT 580 GPUs.

 

[The Crypto Guy]

As nice as this looks, it's just a tech demo. I saw a lot of people on Reddit gushing over how PS5 games are going to look like that. Let's see what the games using the engine actually look like. Afterall, this tech demo for Unreal engine 3 came out 9 years ago and it still looks better than most games out there:



This tech demo for UE4 came out 7 years ago and games still don't look this good:



I am glad they're focusing more on lighting though. After playing Metro Exodus with raytracing on, I was sold that raytracing and better lighting is the next step in gaming as far as graphics are concerned.

Eh, those cutscenes look like most ps4 games (the better ones).

 

[Frankie Spankie]

To clarify, it's a tech demo running in real time on the ps5, people are putting it down like it's a pre rendered cutscene on a $5000 PC. That tech demo you linked was running on 4 GT 580 GPUs.

I heard that but it's still a tech demo nevertheless. We're talking about just a vertical slice where they only have to focus on graphical fidelity. If you want to believe that games will look like this any time soon, feel free, I'm just trying to spare people the disappointment because this cycle goes on every single time. Every time a new engine comes out, people are always like "Wow! I can't believe games can look this good!" Meanwhile a game doesn't look that good for like another 10 years.

Eh, those cutscenes look like most ps4 games (the better ones).

The Samaritan demo, yes. Like I said, games are just starting to look this good. But it's a pretty telling sign when 9 years later you can finally say "most better PS4 games look this good."

I'm curious what games you think look as good as the Infilitrator demo though. And I'm not talking something like "Well, these textures look better," I'm talking about the whole package, the lighting, textures, graphical fidelity, how the environment reacts to everything going on around it, etc. Regardless of what the engine is capable of, game developers have to focus on a lot more than just graphics. It's why tech demos look so good, the people making those demos have 1 thing to worry about, making it look pretty. Games have to focus on gameplay, the world they're building, how everything interacts with each other, etc.

 

[aleshemsky83]

Well, this demo really doesn't look that much better than Uncharted 4 or some of the games using photogrammetry like Battlefront 2. Considering (if true) that its a fully real time demo on real hardware, this looks more than doable.

I'm curious what games you think look as good as the Infilitrator demo though. And I'm not talking something like "Well, these textures look better," I'm talking about the whole package, the lighting, textures, graphical fidelity, how the environment reacts to everything going on around it, etc. Regardless of what the engine is capable of, game developers have to focus on a lot more than just graphics. It's why tech demos look so good, the people making those demos have 1 thing to worry about, making it look pretty. Games have to focus on gameplay, the world they're building, how everything interacts with each other, etc.

Gears 5 looks extremely good inside cutscenes (the graphics get a boost in cutscenes, its still real-time so theres no video files or anything, they just turn on certain settings automatically, DMC5 does this too ) Skip to 1:03:45, 1:15:00 or 2:10:00, tons of scenes, also reminds me a lot of midgar in the FF7 remake, which looks pretty great.



Also 7:45 is pretty damn impressive



Obviously, overall a game will never look as polished and smooth as a Tech demo cutscene, theres gonna be an ugly texture here or there, theres gonna be a stuttery framerate here or there, might even be some jaggies, the point is to create a realistic goal, like that samaritan tech demo, I think unreal engine 3 eventually got there with Arkham Knight, which yes was 5 years later but was running on console while that tech demo was running on a very expensive pc.

 

[Commander Clueless]

The tech demo is sort of the best of the engine of course, but it's still impressive.

The new technology would logically seem to make use of the new ultra-fast SSD storage in the next generation consoles, and a lot of magical stuff can be done when you properly make use of that kind of speed. As a bit of a tech nerd, I've been waiting for someone to properly leverage NVMe speeds on PC for some time, so this is exciting to me.


Unreal Engine continues to push the envelope of what is easily available, for AAA and indie developers alike...and the changes to royalty policy would seem to be a huge boon for small studios. That's a thumbs up from me.

 

[x Tame Impala]

The tech demo isn’t showcasing what gaming is going to look like relatively soon. It’s showcasing new tools and abilities for devs to use in future games.

They didn’t even use a real game. You’re not supposed to watch it and think you’re going to get this experience right away. This is just max potential in an extremely limited window.

Edited for unnecessary attitude

 

[Knave]

I'm all for engine improvements and it was certainly demonstrated but at the end of the day it's a tech demo and judging from the live commentary from users I was seeing in the youtube chat... people are going to have their expectations crushed when next gen consoles release and games running on the engine get released.

 

[RandV]

I'm all for engine improvements and it was certainly demonstrated but at the end of the day it's a tech demo and judging from the live commentary from users I was seeing in the youtube chat... people are going to have their expectations crushed when next gen consoles release and games running on the engine get released.

Yeah I don't mean to rag on it, visually it's very impressive and it's a good thing if the engine can take more of the load off from developers doing the grunt work on resources. But this is just the status quo same games with but with increased fidelity. I know it's just a tech demo but if you ignore the shiyn graphics and look at the gameplay shown it's a combination of FFX hallway walking + Uncharted fluid climbing (but stay in the designated climbing area!) + Anthem flying.

Personally I'd be more impressed if the engine used current gen graphics but facilitated the character being able to move fluidly around the entire environment. This effects series I like such as The Elder Scrolls or The Witcher which always look prettier when they come out but tend to have the same clunky movement systems.

 

[Emperoreddy]

I like they got everyone's old friend, squeezing through a narrow rockaway to hide load times.

I know they claimed it was there so we could admire the rocks, but ehhh

 

[Osprey]

Yeah I don't mean to rag on it, visually it's very impressive and it's a good thing if the engine can take more of the load off from developers doing the grunt work on resources. But this is just the status quo same games with but with increased fidelity. I know it's just a tech demo but if you ignore the shiyn graphics and look at the gameplay shown it's a combination of FFX hallway walking + Uncharted fluid climbing (but stay in the designated climbing area!) + Anthem flying.

Personally I'd be more impressed if the engine used current gen graphics but facilitated the character being able to move fluidly around the entire environment. This effects series I like such as The Elder Scrolls or The Witcher which always look prettier when they come out but tend to have the same clunky movement systems.

You're not supposed to be impressed by the gameplay. They're not game developers. Inventing unique gameplay just for the sake of a tech demo would be a waste of time. Besides not having the skills or good reason to do that, they chose familiar gameplay to give a realistic idea of the benefits of the engine to existing games. The kind of tech demos that they've done in the past have looked more like cutscenes, which is kind of useless. For once, a tech demo is showing us what actual gameplay may look like and showing developers what's possible for them.

 

[aleshemsky83]

Unreal Engine 5 tech demo uses 'film-quality' assets, runs on today's hardware | PC Gamer

So according to epic, this would run with "pretty good performance" on a 2070 super. Not super demanding.

 

[Shareefruck]

I think people understand what the purpose of the tech demo is, it's just that for once the leap in technology is not impressive or meaningful enough to generate that much enthusiasm or interest in the possibilities of what could be done with them.

 

[aleshemsky83]

I think people understand what the purpose of the tech demo is, it's just that for once the leap in technology is not impressive or meaningful enough to generate that much enthusiasm or interest in the possibilities of what could be done with them.

I thought the end when the character flew across the map was very impressive technologically, graphical effects aside.

 

[Shareefruck]

I thought the end when the character flew across the map was very impressive technologically, graphical effects aside.

I'm not saying the technological advancements aren't technically impressive in isolation, I just mean that their actual potential impact on the experience seems very marginal. We're getting into incremental improvement territory with tech now, not jarring gamechangers.

 

[aleshemsky83]

I'm not saying the technological advancements aren't technically impressive in isolation, I just mean that their actual potential impact on the experience seems very marginal. We're getting into incremental improvement territory with tech now, not jarring gamechangers.

Well this demo was mostly focused on the lighting and environment scanning tech (I guess UE5s take on photogrammetry), which is subjective to each person how much that changes their experience and immersion. But I think that one scene demonstrated pretty well what sonys been pushing the console as with what the new storage technology is capable of when they started demoing spiderman behind the scenes, that it kind of unlocks the discomfort of artificially slowed down traversal or corridors and slow to open doorways (though this demo had one), I think thats definitely a big improvement thats sort of bringing back what we had in the days of cartridges that got lost during the ps1 era.

 

[Frankie Spankie]

Obviously, overall a game will never look as polished and smooth as a Tech demo cutscene.

That's all I'm getting at. I don't look at cutscenes and think "this is how good this game looks," I look at the gameplay and think that. I personally enjoy a good aesthetic over graphical fidelity anyway. It's why games like Ori or Cuphead are some of the most beautiful games out there while they don't have any crazy graphics.

I'm all for engine improvements and it was certainly demonstrated but at the end of the day it's a tech demo and judging from the live commentary from users I was seeing in the youtube chat... people are going to have their expectations crushed when next gen consoles release and games running on the engine get released.

This is exactly who I'm speaking to in my original post. I think it just goes to show how long people have been gaming for. I'm sure the majority of people who are hyped thinking this is what the near future is are the people who just haven't been gaming for too long and haven't gone through the same disappointing cycles. Marketing in the gaming industry will eventually make us all cynical to anything we see pushed at us.

 

[Osprey]

It'll take years until game developers get the most out of the engine like we see in the demo. The engine won't be released until mid-next year. There will game developers who will switch over to UE5 mid-development and we'll see a lot of already released games updated and "remastered" in UE5, but they're not going to replace all of their map and object data with "film-quality assets" to take advantage of it. Game developers will need to start development with UE5, which, if you figure on a typical 3.5 years of development, means that the first games made completely with UE5 won't be out until almost 5 years from now. That's probably the earliest that we'll see graphics approaching this tech demo, and it could take a bit longer. In other words, we may see it on the PS5 and XBX, but not until near the end of their generations. It's still exciting and seems to have the potential to really move graphics forward, but we'll have to be patient.

 

[The Crypto Guy]

I like they got everyone's old friend, squeezing through a narrow rockaway to hide load times.

I know they claimed it was there so we could admire the rocks, but ehhh

Didn't even notice that. Super minor thing to complain about.

 

[Emperoreddy]

Didn't even notice that. Super minor thing to complain about.

Considering the PS5 is being sold on how much its reducing load times. To need to hide load times with the this same old last gen trick kind if shits on that.

Especially in a tech demo designed to show off performance.

 

[The Crypto Guy]

Considering the PS5 is being sold on how much its reducing load times. To need to hide load times with the this same old last gen trick kind if shits on that.

Especially in a tech demo designed to show off performance.

Maybe, but what you said was still pure speculation. I for one think they were actually going with the look to show off the graphics.

 

[RandV]

You're not supposed to be impressed by the gameplay. They're not game developers. Inventing unique gameplay just for the sake of a tech demo would be a waste of time. Besides not having the skills or good reason to do that, they chose familiar gameplay to give a realistic idea of the benefits of the engine to existing games. The kind of tech demos that they've done in the past have looked more like cutscenes, which is kind of useless. For once, a tech demo is showing us what actual gameplay may look like and showing developers what's possible for them.

I wasn't speaking specifically about their demo, just in general when saying this sort of stuff doesn't impress me (though I understand it's great for others).

I know this is just status quo working on what they're good at, and the engines have always been geared towards cutting edge graphics. And I'm not saying they need to invent any knew gameplay, but more if they can sink all that time and money into engineering billions of triangles why can't someone put that kind of effort into a more fluid physics engine? Because if this is a gameplay demo and not just a cut scene that stuff is in there. When the character fluidly scrambling up the designated climbing zone, or they point out on entering the temple she casually puts her hand on the wall, I'm assuming that's not stuff you just program from scratch for a demo.

To use a very basic example, if I wanted to fire up a C compiler and make a win32 Pong game I would need to code the objects, their redrawing, the key mapping, collision detection, ball physics, etc etc. And if I want it to run smoothly on an older computer don't forget to make it multi-threaded. It's all low level math coding for every part of the game. But if I did the same thing in say the Unity engine, you pretty much just drag and drop everything onto the screen and set some parameters. The engine takes care of the rest, making it very easy to program a game.

Now this isn't my area of expertise, I've only played with Unity a little bit and I don't know what the dev environment is like for other engines. But what kind of struck me here is 1:40 in where they're showing off the lighting coming into the cave, if I could play the demo myself and tried to take the character off the designated path to the rocky hill what would happen? That's where I would be impressed, if the engine gameplay demo had more extensive fluid and free movement, not just in a designated climbing strip and doorways, so you could really explore that beautiful environment.