Epic Games has been working closely with next-generation consoles in the development of its upcoming Unreal Engine 5, but it seems as though the tech demo we’ve seen could just be the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the consoles’ true capabilities.
Epic’s chief technology officer, Kim Liberi, spoke with Official PlayStation Magazine UK about just how realistic the next-gen consoles can look.
“It has been a lifelong dream of mine that real-time computer graphics, and in particular games, can be as believable and realistic as a movie,” he said.
“Next-gen graphics and processing power will not only make games more immersive, but will also enable entirely new gameplay concepts that can take advantage of fully dynamic environments and lighting, much-improved physics, smarter AI, and richer multiplayer experiences.”
He also spoke about Unreal Engine 5 and how the Unreal Engine was instrumental for the Disney Plus show, The Mandalorian.
“For many years, the movie industry has been experimenting with Unreal Engine for previsualisation and cinematic shot design, and then last year Jon Favreau and LucasFilm made the leap to use Unreal to generate final pixels for in-camera visual effects on The Mandalorian,” he said.
“Yet, there is still the challenge that the movie industry creates almost infinitely complex assets, and for real-time content, we need simplified polygon meshes and normal maps. With Nanite, a new breakthrough technology in Unreal Engine 5, we have removed the barriers.
“You can now create environments with full-quality cinematic assets and the engine does all the heavy lifting, resulting in some truly photorealistic results.”
Unreal Engine 5 was shown off with a tech demo earlier this summer, which introduced the concepts of Nanites and Lumens. Check out more about the tech demo and Epic’s plans for next-gen consoles right here.
Featured Image Credit: Epic Games/Unreal Engine 5