Unreal Engine 5
The Unreal Engine 5 team tease the future
Unreal Engine 5 is becoming the go-to tech for game developers. Square Enix has revealed Dragon Quest XII will be made in UE5, and the next BioShock from new developer Cloud Chamber will also be using the next-gen game engine.
But what does this mean for the kinds of games we’ll get? Unreal Engine 3 pioneered cover-shooter mechanics, and if that’s any indicator, the tech in Unreal Engine 5 will affect how games play for years to come. A recently released UE5 demo reveals how easy it is to create enormous, detailed open worlds in the engine. As BioShock is rumoured to be using it, can we expect the larger levels of BioShock Infinite to be expanded upon?
RISK AND REWARD
Unreal Engine 5 will enable developers to take risks, says Quixel artist Galen Davies “People will take chances and experiment […] Some of these new technologies are going to allow a lot of people to experiment, [and try] a lot of things that they couldn’t do, that were out of budget or out of scope to try.” Nick Penwarden, VP of engineering at Epic Games, gives us a further taste of the future: “In a couple [of] years, I think we’re going to see a broad variety of games, and especially those built with Unreal Engine 5, that are going to be larger, more detailed, and more dynamic. Being able to leverage the high-quality lighting and dynamic scenes that Lumen [UE5’s lighting and reflection system] brings alongside physics to enable really deep, dynamic, interactive gameplay moments.”
The UE5 team also reveals that a lot of developers are taking UE4 projects and bringing them into UE5. “They’re starting to see what their content looks like with Lumen and Nanite [a scaling geometry system],” says Penwarden. Could we see UE5 versions of our favourite games? Would you enjoy exploring even more expansive worlds? Let us know.