Unreal Engine 5 introduces many new tools and features, such as Lumen, Nanite, and Temporal Super Resolution. Lumen is a dynamic global illumination system that enables adaptive lighting across different geometry. For instance, Lumen handles lighting during a sunset and affects how shadows are portrayed in a scene. Developers can create large worlds and games with Nanite, a virtual micro polygon geometry system that renders pixel scale detail and high object counts. Along with the built-in upsampling feature, Temporal Super Resolution, developers are able to create high-fidelity experiences without a major impact on overall performance.
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Reddit user and artist u/AGC_ONE created an incredible summer scene using the tools present in Unreal Engine 5. The scene is based on Helmut Newton’s vintage photo from France in 1984, “Morning at the Cote D’Azur.” A debonair man stands near his French Riviera balcony, reading a newspaper from the French city of Nice.
In the original photo by Newton, the man is leaning on the balcony as he reads the newspaper. In u/AGC_ONE’s scene, the man is standing upright instead of leaning. In Unreal Engine 5, u/AGC_ONE used the photo as a reference and attempted to recapture the appearance of photographs from a bygone era.
The scene is not a 1-to-1 representation of ’80s photography, but it provides a glimpse into what could be recreated in Unreal Engine 5. Games and films set in the period could benefit from what Unreal Engine 5 offers. The development engine was released this past April to all developers, and many artists are already experimenting with its tools. Developers and artists that learn from Unreal Engine 5’s toolset are a boon to the games and entertainment industry at large.
However, Unreal Engine 5 is a very recent iteration of the popular Unreal Engine. Developers should bring out the potential of the engine with ample time and resources to develop projects. At the same time, developers around the world continue to learn about the capabilities of PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. Fortunately, players may look forward to many new games in development with Unreal Engine 5 such as Kingdom Hearts 4 from Square Enix and a new Witcher title by CD Projekt Red.
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