Unreal Engine 5 Could Be HUUUUGE For VR Developers!!!

[Anonymous]

Am surprised that nobody has posted about this here yet. Epic released a Demo of UE5 played on a PS5.

https://youtu.be/qC5KtatMcUw

What's a real MAJOR game changer is that the engine DOESN'T use Normal maps but high resolution models instead, so scenes can have BILLIONS of polys. ?

Previous to this developers have had to create a high res model for any detail they want, create a Normal map with that detail in it, retopologise that high res model into a low res model (turning from a model with millions of polys into a model with thousands of polys) and 'bake' that Normal map into the low res model so that it contains the detail of the high res model.

This is all fine and dandy, works great...unless you're working on something in VR. ???

Normal maps only show micro-surface detail in VR, about a pixel depth's worth, everything else is flat. So you need to add more geometry (and as a result more polys) to get detail into a model. And of course more polys mean less performance. ?????

UE5 looks like it's going to be a real game changer for us VR developers, I nearly lost my shit when I first saw it ????

[Anonymous]

Keep in mine that the demo was running at 30 FPS and only on a 2080 that it can run at 40 FPS. While its a great leap forward - its also why its going to delay a year to improve the current methods to something more like 60 FPS. There have been talks about it off and on around here.

[Anonymous]

Even at 40fps it's still a game changer. That's billions of polys sitting in that demo. Being able to have 'only' a few million polys at 90fps will be awesome enough.  B)

[Anonymous]

snowdog said:

Even at 40fps it's still a game changer. That's billions of polys sitting in that demo. Being able to have 'only' a few million polys at 90fps will be awesome enough.  B)

Correct! I am sure they will add a scale later that will let you even set the amount of polys you want to draw as a "low - med - high" setup witch would be amazing. Also, there are soo many questions going forward in how this works still like a lot of what was shown off was rocks and static land scapes - what about more open lands with lots of "life" going on like trees and grass? Also, if it is base around pixels - wouldn't that mean higher the pixel count - the more work it has to be done? What res was it running with the demo? Was that 1080p or 4k? 

Still - a game changer going forward. Can't wait to see what can be made with it. Keep in mind this is more like a 5 year tech tool than a next year tech tool type of thing. Also, this is the first step into what we call Ray Trace Engines where the pixel it self is what matters over what is in the draw phase. More power - less work - and over all scales better for less costing hardware. 

[PluckeyOne]

The demo was said to be running on a PS5 Dev kit and coming in 2021.

[DaftnDirect]

I like the idea of not having to do user defined LOD for the models, that should save a lot of time.
It's one of the things I've been thinking I have to consider now during project creation but looks like I can just go ahead and do a single model with as much detail as I like and the engine will sort it out.

Just need to start the long haul of learning to use it, it's been sitting on my PC for 5 years now (well version 4 has been) but 3ds max has been enough for me to get to grips with, probably easier for you youngsters.

[Anonymous]

DaftnDirect said:

I like the idea of not having to do user defined LOD for the models, that should save a lot of time.
It's one of the things I've been thinking I have to consider now during project creation but looks like I can just go ahead and do a single model with as much detail as I like and the engine will sort it out.

Just need to start the long haul of learning to use it, it's been sitting on my PC for 5 years now (well version 4 has been) but 3ds max has been enough for me to get to grips with, probably easier for you youngsters.

Not 100% true - you still have size you have to consider. So while it might be able to draw the needed LOD flex - the more detail you add - the higher the poly/vertex data you will also have and that means games could jump from 10GB to well over 50 or more in the coming years witch might not be a good thing if companies just relax on their current methods as well. I assume cad software will need to have some type of way set a target resolution going forward or we will run into some real size challenges later 😛

[DaftnDirect]

There may be more game size issues, but that's not really my problem as it's unlikely my project will get that big... it's just the time saving without having to do the LOD thing at the early stage of model making which I find attractive.

Do they not include ways to create projects with set maximum LODs regardless of the initial size and complexity of the models? so the final game size and detail can be tailored to the target device?

But yeah, 50 gig games and above are definitely going to be much more of a thing if devs are offered ways to use that detail effectively.

[Anonymous]

DaftnDirect said:

Do they not include ways to create projects with set maximum LODs regardless of the initial size and complexity of the models? so the final game size and detail can be tailored to the target device?

Don't know yet - I assume that is just handle base off how many pixels are shown off that object in size to the view point. For example, less LOD is perform on objects that take more screen space than objects that are in the background. You could see it performing some LOD (pop ins) in the demo as well - so not sure if its a mix or maybe set levels.

[DaftnDirect]

I really need to start getting into it... I think something's gone wrong with the update though. I hour in and it's still 'preparing' 😮

edit: ok updated now and the launcher has reminded me that GTA V is free atm. That's probably already been mentioned on the forum and if so, I'd forgotten. Probably not really something I'll play much... but it's free, what can I say!