Today, Epic Games announced their upcoming engine update. Unreal Engine 5. For the new engine’s first press release, they focused on showing off the graphical capabilities that UE5 will have. Thinning the barrier between games and film. Note, the demonstration video is running on PlayStation 5 hardware.
In the demonstration video, it showed off Nanite and Lumen. Nanite allows an incredible amount of geometry to be used that doesn’t limit the artist’s capabilities due to technical requirements. Allowing artists to directly import their models from ZBrush, photogrammetry scans or CAD data and more into the engine without compromising their details for optimization. Epic states that there’ll not be any need for normal maps or level of details required by the artists. Lumen like its name, is all about lighting. However, it uses the engine’s full-capability to render a fully dynamic global illumination that immediately runs. Requiring no baking for the lighting and letting artists to move around lighting as they see fit. Increasing the amount of time saved for other necessities for them to create the best product. The lighting is able to change in real-time according to gameplay and allows for the most realistic interaction with the world.
In addition to these specific features, the engine is running off what Unreal Engine 4 currently has. Current version is 4.25. It showcases Chaos physics, Niagara particle system, audio capabilities and more. Epic states that engine version 4.25 and above will be forward compatible with Unreal Engine 5 when it releases later next year in 2021. To demonstrate the ability, Epic will be migrating their popular game, Fortnite to UE5 in mid-2021.
Lastly, the engine will be available in next-generation consoles and current-generation consoles as well as PC, Mac, iOS and Android.
Aside from Unreal Engine 5, Epic has launched their Epic Online Services that can work in multiplatform. The services features friends, matchmaking, lobbies, achievements, leaderboards and account capabilities. Having been used in Epic’s Fortnite which the game runs in multiplatforms such as PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo, PC, Mac, iOS and Android and other developers will have the same ability for their games. The SDK is free for all developers and can use it in other engines as well.
Source: Unreal Engine
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