News hardware Unreal Engine 5: Dozens of ultra-realistic environments presented in a new demo
Published on 05/17/2022 at 11:18
The new console generation isn’t just regarding new exclusives or first-party games, it’s also a way to deploy new technology. Many studios have their own engine (Ubisoft, Guerrilla, Capcom), but the ones that dominate the market are the Unreal Engine and Unity.
After many years at develop, improve and stabilize the Unreal Engine 4Epic Games recently made available to everyone l’Unreal Engine 5which embodies the next generation of games.
The Unreal Engine 5 still makes its power speak
Many studios have already announced that their next productions would benefit from Nanite and Lumen technologieswhich, in addition to the technical evolutions of the engine, should make it possible to create vast, ultra-realistic and very dense environments. However, the engine alone is usually not enough to make a game. Each studio has different needs, and engines are just a toolboxsometimes very complete and allowing to create pretty things, which developers use to create their own technologies.
Also, many are budding teams and developers to experiment with things, using in particular megascans, assets on Sketchfab and the Unreal marketplace. That’s what did Quixel, which was acquired in November 2019 by Epic Games, in order to integrate these very high resolution assets into the Unreal Engine marketplace. The project, title Ninety Days, presents more than 40 environments made with the engine and available assets.
We wanted to see what’s possible when you combine Unreal Engine 5, the world’s most open and advanced real-time 3D authoring tool, with Quixel Megascans, plus assets from Sketchfab and the ‘Unreal Engine Marketplace. So we set ourselves a challenge, a project we called “Ninety Days”. What our teams were able to accomplish far exceeded our wildest expectations, creating over 40 distinctly stunning environments in just a few days that would have been unimaginable just a few years ago. We hope you enjoy this showcase!
A striking rendering, but…
We thus pass from the desert to the tropical forest, to futuristic cities via the plains, ancient temples, mountains, canyons, cabins by the sea and interiors. The rendering is simply amazingbut beware: these are not excerpts from future games.
This video demonstrates the capabilities of the engine related to the use of megascans, but it will take huge amount of time before full games, with gameplay mechanics, characters and events of all kinds appear with such rendering. Let’s also remember that the Unreal Engine is not limited to video games, and that it is now regularly used for series and filmswith for example The Mandalorian.
Even so, Quixel’s statement does insist that the creation only took a few days, which is a major challenge for the industry. With games getting more expensive, taking longer to produce, and getting better looking, the ability to quickly create things is essential. If you want to know more regarding the creation of Ninety Days, a blog complet was published on the Quixel website.