Hello everyone, I'm David Stay.
On April 5, 2022, Unreal Engine 5 was released.
I remember the shock of that effect long ago when unreal 5 was announced. But in the more than 2 years since the announcement, we haven't really played a game made with Unreal Engine 5.
Now that the official version of "Unreal Engine 5" has finally been announced, those games that are developed with "Unreal Engine 5" are believed to meet with you soon. Now let's take a look at what's exciting about the official version of Unreal Engine 5.
First of all, I don't know if you have seen the promotional video of this "Matrix: Awakening" game.
Inside appears both the current version and the previous younger version of Keanu Reeves. Can you tell which is virtual?
The younger version of this was made with Unreal Engine 5.
This open-world game made with Unreal 5 is closer to reality in terms of both the environment and the characters. The battle scenes also have a more cinematic feel. And all of these images are previewed in real time in Unreal Engine 5.
I also have some experience in 3D modeling and animation. I was really shocked to see this.
Here are some explanations for friends who are not very familiar with 3D production. In addition to games, general commercial 3D animation production is divided into several parts such as modeling, textures, animation, lighting and rendering. Some animation effects also use human body capture technology. And the most time-consuming of these is rendering.
Generally, when making 3D production, it is impossible to see the final product in its entirety, and it needs to be rendered to be able to see. The rendering of the final product can take hours or even days.
The graphics rendering of the game is still somewhat different from the commercial 3D modeling and animation of 3D software. Because the 3D graphics of the game need to be rendered in real time, and to be able to reach 30 frames or even 60 frames per second, or how do we play, right?
Therefore, the previous practice is to make certain trade-offs in the effect and use some pre-rendering methods, plus the optimization of the game by the game engine and graphics card. In this way, it can achieve better results within the range that the computer configuration or game console can bear. When we play the game, we can also find that the picture of the game is still very fake compared to the real picture, which is the reason for the trade-off.
In fact, the current commercial 3D production has long been able to approach the real effect, everyone has seen the Hollywood blockbuster bar, which special effects are made in 3D, can you tell? But these effects often use a lot of computers and take months to render.
Real-time previews are now possible in Unreal 5, which is close to the finished product that 3D software takes hours or even days to render, including ray tracing.
It will be a very big benefit for game making. This movie-like fight scene was directly produced in "Unreal 5", and did not use the shooting of real scenes and a lot of special effects production in the post. This will greatly reduce the cost of making the game and save a lot of time.
If you use the method of real scene shooting and post-special effects production, this effect may take millions of yuan and several months of post-special effects production to complete.
Unreal Engine 5 also comes with a small game of battles to help developers familiarize themselves with the engine.
The game can be run on PC, console, and mobile.
And this mini-game can be played and modified in real time in Unreal Engine 5.
You can directly change the position of the light source and change the color of the floor by changing the map.
The effect of this global illumination, in 3D software, can only be seen through a large amount of time post-rendering.
In Unreal Engine 5, all of this is visible in real time.
A large number of 3D models are also integrated into the engine. You can change the shape and size of the model by adjusting the parameters.
Without using code, you only need to drag and drop to complete the layout of a scene.
There's also a model library built into UE5.
A complete model can be used with a simple drag and drop. It is even modeled by shooting from a mobile phone.
When I saw this, I immediately went to the store to search for this software, but I haven't found it yet.
Friends working in 3D production should know how cumbersome and time-consuming modeling and mapping can be. It now takes only a short time to model and map real-world objects. If this technology can achieve good results, it will disrupt the entire 3D production industry.
UE5 also integrates a cloud-based human modeling capability.
You only need to adjust the parameters to make different faces. Very similar to the pinch function that many games have now.
But it's much more powerful and saves a lot of development time.
Unreal Engine 5 also has a strong web community.
This is where developers can learn, write tutorials and discuss technical issues with everyone, or share their results. Of course, most of the content is in English.
Next up are a number of companies that are using Unreal Engine 5 for game development.
From the picture, we can see a lot of Chinese companies, including "Tencent", "Perfect World", and "Game Science" that produced "Black Myth: Wukong". In addition, there are many well-known foreign game development companies in the list.
A special mention is also made here of the "The Witcher" sequel developed by the "CD Project", which will be produced using Unreal Engine 5. Crystal Power Studios will also use Unreal Engine 5 to develop a sequel to Tomb Raider.
Unreal Engine 5 can be used not only for game development, but even for filmmaking.
We've seen the Matrix game made with Unreal 5 close to cinematic level animation before. More films are likely to be made using Unreal 5 in the future.
Finally, let's talk to you a little bit. The official release of Unreal Engine 5 announces that the next generation of games is really here this time. But at first, I thought that everyone's expectations should not be too high. Developers also need to be constantly familiar with the new engine, and UE5 will be constantly being updated. Over time, over the next 2 to 3 years, developers will learn more about the engine. There may be more and more games with cinematic quality levels. With a lot of time-saving features introduced in Unreal Engine 5 to help developers develop a game, it may be shortened from 2 to 3 years or even 5 years to 1 to 2 years. That's definitely a big deal for the player.
Well, today's content is this, if you think it is useful, but also hope to be able to follow, like, forward it, your support is my motivation to make videos, thank you, we will see you in the next issue.