When Unreal Engine 5 released, it brought with it a slew of new game development technologies that stretch the boundaries of what was possible with video games. But instead of just catering to big-budget AAA titles, it's also going to work wonders for indie games, according to developers themselves.
A screenshot for "Valley of the Ancient," a downloadable demo project to showcase the capabilites of the Unreal Engine 5 as it was released for early access by Epic Games last Wednesday.
According to IGN, they asked both AAA and indie game developers to discuss what the technologies of Unreal Engine 5 mean to them, as well as how the new engine's tech will ripple throughout the game industry. Their answer was pretty much consistent: they believe making games is going to be far more efficient, and smaller indie games could become larger in scope than ever.
The technologies they're referring to are of course Nanite (geometry and textures), Lumen (lighting), and UE5's improved world/data streaming capabilities.
First off, let's start with Nanite. In the past, older game engines have a limit to how many polygons they can draw on the screen at tone time before the performance starts tanking. But with Unreal Engine 5, Nanite technology allows developers to create full quality assets without having to make compromises, because the performance hit is going to be almost negligible.
What this could mean is that the overall level of detail in games don't have to look bad at a distance - they will have almost the same level of quality as the assets you see closest to your character.
Developer Kate Raynor, who works as the Studio Technical Director for Gears of War series dev The Coalition, Nanite allows for "full quality movie assets" to be rendered in real time (via Xbox Wire). The technology allows devs to create assets that have over 100 times the detail than previous generations, which is such an insane leap.
This was likely demonstrated in their cinematic test video The Cavern, which was done using the new Epic Games engine. It showcased just how much detailed game assets could be for the foreseeable future, as you can see here:
Read also: Cyberpunk 2077 Gets Reimagined In Unreal Engine 5 With This Demo
What About Lumen?
As for the Lumen lighting tech, game developers are gushing at the possibilities of once again saving on critical development time when using it. Travis Johnson, the Director of Technology for ProbablyMonster (whose Firewalk team is developing a new multiplayer PS5 exclusive, as per another IGN report), had this to say about Unreal Engine 5's lighting tech:
"Artists are beside themselves as they no longer have to make tradeoffs of either reduced lighting quality or slower workflows with delayed results. Designers no longer need to choose between the amount of dynamic environments in the game vs the overall lighting and shadow quality."
What this means is that with UE5's Lumen, developers don't need to set up and maintap lightmaps that can slow development down and even fail at the worst times possible. It could also help studios save a lot money, considering they don't have to pay for lightmap farms anymore.
The current generation of gaming is getting even more amazing by the minute.
Related: Gears 6 Is Reportedly YEARS Away From Release, But Fans Are Still Hyped
Story posted on GameNGuide
Written by RJ Pierce
