Hardware & Technical The Unreal 5 Matrix demo

[[VR] optimal_909]

I just watched the footage on YT and I was left partially impressed.

I feel like the big leap is the representation of faces, they still feel like being made of rubber but they look far better and this will probably translate in much better cutscenes. Also, the optimization is surely great considering the hardware it is being showcased.
The rest is really driven by the usage of more realistic color palette and the absence of texture tiling - there are modded GTA V footages that look nearly this good.
The cars were especially lacking detail, and the night sequence was really flat.

I can see that this engine will be a basis to produce lots of on-rail, over-the-top adventure games (like Uncharted) that will sell the consoles, but overall I think that pitching it as 'Matrix-real' is very much a stretch, and overall it just reinforces the impression that we are converging towards true realism (i.e. we get ever closer in ever smaller steps, so not quite reaching it). Oh, and ever better fidelity will just make little bugs and glitches even more apparent, and considering the state of AAA games these days...

 

[Ozric]

I watched some footage of the car chase that someone posted a link to on Twitter and though, wow this looks awesome! Loved the walking around the city too, I thought it looked pretty stunning for the most part.

But then I had no idea that this tech demo was planned on being made, or listened to anything around it So I haven't seen it being described as "real". Most people probably haven't seen or played modded GTA V footage to have any comparison, though the hardware some of those are played on is also a big part of it. If this is just some of the high end potential from Unreal 5 then not only could it raise the bar, but hopefully it could make things that are scaled back slightly, easier.

I for one am very happy to not get to the stage when you wouldn't be able to tell if it was a game or real

 

[[VR] optimal_909]

I for one am very happy to not get to the stage when you wouldn't be able to tell if it was a game or real

Good point on 'hyperrealism', actually I remember it was an issue for me in GTA IV, which felt like matrix-realism at the time, and I felt thought it has lost its light-hearted tone of the previous installments. And I certainly don't want real looking gore in a game, especially not in a war-like setting.

Simulators on the other hand are great when the visuals are life-like.

 

[Fizzatron]

I find this demo particularly fascinating as it relates to Elite in regard to its claim to provide a solution to simulating large scale cities and settlements as well as bringing life to current stations. As much as I would like to say FDev needs to switch to Unreal 5, I know that's not a feasible or a desired (from the perspective of FDev) solution. Though one hopes that some of the underlying tech will eventually be incorporated into Cobra.