Unreal Engine 5 is available. The boundaries between film and video game become thinner

Announced in May 2020, Unreal Engine 5, the new graphics engine from Epic Games, is officially available to those who develop video games and to those who intend to use them for other multimedia purposes, such as movies and TV series.

The Unreal Engine has also been used in movies and TV series for years – it was used in The Mandalorian, for example – but the fifth generation of the graphics engine brings the two worlds closer together by creating the ability to exploit models created for video games in the TV series, and vice versa. , with a minimum difference in the number of polygons. This is especially true for new consoles (PS5 and Xbox Series X | S), which can express higher computing capabilities than the previous generation.

This simplifies the workflow, saves time for those who make movies or TV content and allows them to express the full potential of the assets being used by making the world of Transmedia possible more cohesive, i.e. the combination of different formats such as video games and films that makes extensive use of effects own.

Innovations promised by Unreal Engine 5

The main innovations from Unreal Engine 5 are Nanite, which guarantees greater geometric detail, and Lumen, advanced dynamic global illumination technology.

Nanite will allow you to “Directly import artistic content created for movies made from millions of polygons“Based on”Put them down a million timesMaintaining a large number of frames per second, he promised Epic games.

Additional updates relate to Shadow Management – using virtual shadow map technology – and Temporary HD to increase performance while delivering high resolutions, upgraded over the original resolution.

These techniques have already been expressed In the demo titled The Matrix Awakensconsisting first of an interactive session with clones of Carrie Ann Moss and Keanu Reeves, in the respective roles of Trinity and New, and then part two of a complete exploration of a vast city with pedestrians and vehicles.

Furthermore, to provide those who develop video games not just some examples to work on, Epic Games has distributed Lyra, an example of a multiplayer experience, and City Sample, which is the city in The Matrix Awakens.

Alliance Technology Show

At State of Unreal, The Coalition, a studio behind the Gears of War series for Xbox, showed off its technology offering, and it’s equally impactful from a visual standpoint.

Crystal Dynamics instead announce who is working on a new Tomb Raider game with Unreal Engine 5 and CD Projekt confirmed that he is using the new graphics engine for the upcoming game The Witcher, It became official a few days agoabandoning the RED engine also used in Cyberpunk 2077.