Epic pushes new engine to enhance 3D special effects Unreal Engine 5 subverts game quality – StartUpBeat

A City Sample developed with Unreal Engine 5, showing a complete city, buildings, vehicles, and more. (Official video screenshot)

Watching lifelike images in the world of the Metaverse definitely elevates the sensory experience. U.S. game developer Epic Games announced on Tuesday that it has launched a new virtual engine, Unreal Engine 5, which allows global developers to use this 3D software platform to create extremely complex 3D details in video games, movie special effects, virtual reality (VR) and other scenes. Realistic faces and large buildings lay the foundation for the development of a new generation of Web 3.

As the first major update in 8 years, Unreal Engine 5 is free for developers to download, focusing on next-generation consoles and computer platforms; Epic will take 5% of games that earn more than $1 million as a share. Epic’s official website mentioned that as of January this year, about 48% of the next-generation game works are produced using the Unreal Engine engine, and will appear on platforms such as Sony PlayStation 5 (PS5) and Microsoft’s Xbox Series X/S in the future.

Create virtual characters in minutes

This time, two additional visual enhancement technologies are added, namely the lighting system and the geometric system. The first is Lumen, which simulates natural light, which can change the angle of sunlight and even the geometric changes of refraction in response to time changes; Nanite, which boasts extremely accurate 3D details, allows developers to save time-consuming and tedious processes when designing games, and build digital The picture composed of millions of polygons maintains the real-time frame rate without reducing the fidelity.

For Hollywood filmmakers, creating digital portraits is expensive and complicated. The Metahuman app by Epic features templates and tools to create characters in minutes, even customizing wrinkles around the eyes, adding freckles or changing the shape of the pupils. The engine can also be used for indoor factory scenes. As long as a huge LED curtain wall is built, TV actors can be integrated into the virtual stage, as if they were in a complex sci-fi scene.

In addition to design uses such as automobiles and buildings, Unreal Engine 5 is also suitable for the metaverse. The new World Partition tool this time breaks down the open world one by one and creates a dream city from scratch. Every block, every leaf and every brick is vividly and meticulously presented. In terms of virtual-real hybrid activities, performers can wear motion capture suits to remotely control the movements of their virtual avatars, and stream entertainment content such as concerts to audiences around the world.

Following Epic’s release of the third chapter “Fortnite” in December last year, CD Projekt RED, Poland’s largest game developer, also said last month that it will cooperate with Epic developers to design the next game using the latest Unreal Engine 5 The Witcher.

Tomb Raider Lola’s new work adopts

In addition, US developer Crystal Dynamicsdiscloseplans to use the new virtual engine tool to develop a new generation of “Lola the Tomb Raider” series of works.

It is worth mentioning that RealityScan, another mobile application developed by Epic, can convert mobile phone photos into 3D models for 3D, VR and augmented reality (AR) projects. Game developers may find this program useful if they want to place certain items, such as a home grooming, in a virtual environment.