L’Unreal Engine 5the new engineEpic Games (Fortnite, Gears of WarRobo Recall) passed recently from its beta version (launched last year) to its final version in early April (see article).
The engine being available on PC and consoles next gen, we were able to test and observe the different new technologies embedded in this engine and how they considerably change the video game world. Here is a non-exhaustive list of what the engine offers in terms of functionality:
Nanite – Enables automated LOD (level of detail). 3D artists are therefore no longer obliged (as was the case before) to design several 3D models of the same object or character to ensure the optimization of the game. You may have it yourself seen during your gaming wanderings, 3D models up close are detailed unlike those far away, resulting in polygons or object textures that appear without any transition. With the fifth version of the Epic Games engine, this is now a thing of the past. The engine is able to calculate and automatically generate in real time several models of the same object or character, without it being perceptible for us human beings, all without a “popping” effect.
Lumen – Allows automated lighting management, artists are no longer forced to place their light sources themselves to make something convincing and/or realistic. To simplify, just place the sun at the top of your level and everything is calculated in real time, a bit like the RTX at NVIDIA. But where Epic is strong is that you won’t need RTX graphics cards to take advantage of Lumen and its effects, which will be much less energy-consuming and just as impressive.
World Partition – Avoids having several maps to load in the game. Everything is done from one, developers can activate / deactivate certain areas to gain resources or decide to prepare the future area when the player is ready to get there, all of course without any loading time. The data layer allows you to superimpose (as its name suggests) several layers within the same level, like Photoshop. You can therefore, like a Dishonored 2, switch between different eras, but in a much more automated way and without hacks for the developers.
Full Body IK Solver – Allows to make the position of the characters more realistic, and more particularly on the reliefs or the staircases. We’ve all known that moment when our character puts one foot on a stair step while the other hangs in the air without our character falling, well that’s ancient history now. Even if the functionality is still perfectible, the characters now move on the stairs in a convincing way, step by step, and in a realistic way. Same thing for the other elevations, the physics of the character is contextualized in real time to the decor.
Motion Warping Animation – Allows your character to continue to move realistically if it encounters an obstacle during its animation (jumping or running for example).
We can also note a streamlined interface, a greatly improved sound and animation manager and an integration of assets (elements of the game) much more harmonious (the object takes into account the context in which it is integrated and blends more easily into the decor). You would have understood it, everything is done to make game creation as simple as possible (all tools are integrated and you won’t have to switch from app to app to design your game) and the most automated.
Branch Oculus is now officially available, allowing in particular the development of applications or games for the Meta Quest 2. Although this announcement is exciting, the disappointment comes quite quickly when we discover that the two flagship technologies of the 5th version of the engine, namely Lumen and Nanitedo not work in VR and are not even available on the android branchwhich immediately cancels the wow effect of the engine.
And as if that weren’t enough, other features are not yet implemented:
- Passthrough: allows you to get a view of your real environment;
- SpaceWarp: rendering technology using image prediction to free up computing power (see article);
- UE5 ports of examples and demo projects;
- Tone mapping: makes colors and contrast more realistic, similar to standard HDR or Dolby Vision;
- Late Latching: reduces latency on head movements and position.
Faced with the tiny contribution (in the state) of theUnreal Engine 5 for the world of Metathis advises developers to stay on 4.27 for production. However, if you are interested in using the latest engineepic for your games or applications Meta Quest 2be aware that you will need to have registered your username Github nearepicotherwise you will get a 404 error when trying to access the branch Oculus.
And if you’re not a developer, it will take a few months or even years for the features described in this article to take shape and offers us more and more spectacular games!
If you haven’t taken the plunge yet, you can treat yourself to an Oculus Quest 2 at Bakerthe Fnac, Darty or Amazon for €349.99. You can also find good PCs for gamers there.