It’s been almost two years since the Epic Games studio has unveiled the technical performance achievable with its new 3D engine : the Unreal Engine 5. If it was the PS5 that had the first to highlight next gen graphics, today, any studio or video game professional can have access to this software which crystallizes the revival of photo-realistic rendering. Obviously, before being able to obtain a convincing or even impressive result, it will be necessary to master the tools and it is obvious that it is the most important studios which are more likely to take full advantage of it. We already know that the next The Witcher 4 and the new Tomb Raider will use the Unreal Engine 5 and it should eventually establish itself as the main tool for large and small developers, given its accessibility and what he represents in the profession as well. During the official presentation, details have been provided to attract as many studios as possible, who will be able to benefit from a new dynamic lighting system, with the possibility of importing high-quality images composed of millions of polygons such as sculptures. ZBrush or photogrammetric renderings without fear of losing quality or fluidity.
The other particularity of the Unreal Engine 5 is that it will succeed in finding a good balance (or compromise, it depends) so as not to sacrifice anything between the quality of the image and the fluidity of the game, something studios need to work on when offering different performance modes. Moreover, the studios that will tackle open worlds will be able to work with more ease, the Unreal Engine 5 will offer adapted tools to make the creation of these open worlds easier. Photo-realistic character models will also be at the heart of the concerns with this possibility of using applications such as Quixel Megascans and MetaHuman Creator, recently acquired by Epic Games and made accessible in the Unreal Engine 5.
Moreover, just to show us in pictures what it is possible to do with the latest updates of the Unreal Engine 5, Epic Games has shared a demo produced by the studio The Coalition, which develops the latest episodes of Gears of War for Microsoft. We can therefore observe the quality of the lighting in this technical demo taking place in a cellar, but also the modeling of the face of the character, his expressions and what it is also possible to do with moving smoke. The result is obviously impressive and these are renderings that will be possible to be seen during the cutscenes. In-game, we’re not there yet… We let you judge.
