Epic Games teases first look of Unreal Engine 5 on PlayStation 5 with new features

Epic Games has released the first look of Unreal Engine 5 (UE5). The demo of the upcoming game engine has been showcased on PlayStation 5. According to a blog by Epic Games, one of the goals for the next generation of Unreal Engine is to deliver photorealism. The demo video showcases a host of new and improved features coming to Unreal Engine 5, including two core technologies: ‘Nanite’ and ‘Lumen’. [caption id=“attachment_8371331” align=“alignnone” width=“1024”] Unreal Engine 5.[/caption] ‘Nanite’ is a virtualised micropolygon geometry system that enables film-quality source art to be imported directly into the Unreal Engine. It is streamed and scaled in real time, reducing the manual work required by CGI artists to fit high-detail environments within constraints. Lumen is a complete dynamic global illumination technology that instantly reacts to scene and light changes. The Verge quoted Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney saying, “The graphics speak for themselves. And Epic has always pushed the bleeding edge of what’s possible.” Sweeney said that currently, building high-quality games takes enormous time and cost and hence Epic wants to make the lives of developers easier and more productive. Unreal Engine 5 preview will be available in early 2021. A full release is expected later next year and will support both next and current generation consoles along with PC, Mac, iOS, and Android. Epic has also said that it has decided to waive all royalties on Unreal Engine games up to the first $1 million in gross revenue. The company has launched Epic Online Services, a free SDK integration that enables developers to include friends, matchmaking, lobbies, achievements, leaderboards and Epic account systems in their games. This is available across seven major platforms ― PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, PC, Mac, iOS and Android.