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PS5 Tech Demo Unveils Stunning Unreal Engine 5 Gameplay
The world has finally been shown a glimpse of the potential of next-generation graphics, as an Unreal Engine 5 tech demo running through PlayStation 5 hardware has been revealed. Sony and Microsoft have slowly been revealing details about the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X over the past few months, but the companies have been reticent to show off games running on the systems until recently.
Microsoft seemed to be taking the initiative with its Xbox Series X gameplay reveal event, but this backfired. Fans were salty about the lack of Xbox Series X gameplay footage shown at the event, leading to concerns that Microsoft had nothing impressive to show. This has put the ball squarely back in Sony's court, as gamers across the world have been expecting some kind of response that shows the power of the PlayStation 5 and what it can do for the next generation of games.
There are rumors that a PlayStation 5 reveal event will be happening in June, but it turns out that fans won't have to wait that long to see what the system is capable of. A trailer for the Unreal Engine 5 was shown during a Summer Games Fest stream, in a video that has now been uploaded to the Unreal Engine YouTube page. The trailer showed off the power of the Unreal Engine 5 running through PlayStation 5 hardware, showing off some incredible graphics in the process.
The trailer for Unreal Engine 5 showed a tech demo called "Lumen in the Land of Nanite", which resembled one of the modern Tomb Raider games, as an adventurer explored caves and ancient ruins. Graphics in video games are composed of tiny triangles and everything shown in the demo combined consisted of hundreds of billions of triangles, allowing for a level of detail never seen in games before. It's now possible for games to take models made in the ZBrush digital sculpting software and import them directly into games without the need for optimization. The demo also claimed that this detail can extend to massive regions, rather than just small rooms. These facts open all kinds of possibilities for upcoming games, as well as shortening development time.
Xbox boss Phil Spencer said that next-gen consoles are like going from 2D to 3D. The footage revealed wasn't quite that impressive, but it was still an eye-opener as to what the next generation of systems will be capable of. Sony has started to roll out the hype machine for the PlayStation 5 (including the new PlayStation Studios brand for its first-party games) and we're excited to see more of what the system is capable of. The Unreal Engine 5 demo was impressive, but it showed off elements in a controlled environment. We'll be far more impressed when we see these kinds of graphics and load times in a fully functional PlayStation 5 game.
The PlayStation 5 is due to be released during the 2020 holiday season.
