Epic Games has revealed Unreal Engine 5 with a real-time demonstration that is running live on PlayStation 5.
Called “Lumen in the Land of Nanite,” this technical showcase has been created to demonstrate two new core technologies that will be introduced with Unreal Engine 5.
These are Nanite virtualized micropolygon geometry, that “frees artists to create as much geometric detail as the eye can see,” and Lumen, which is “a fully dynamic global illumination solution that immediately reacts to scene and light changes.”
The good news is that Epic Games has confirmed that Unreal Engine 5 will remain to be scalable and can continue to support Nintendo Switch. But, the extent to whether the portable home console can benefit from the next-gen technological advancements that come with it is unclear at this point.
“Unreal Engine 4.25 already supports next-generation console platforms from Sony and Microsoft, and Epic is working closely with console manufacturers and dozens of game developers and publishers using Unreal Engine 4 to build next-gen games,” Epic Games writes in a blog post.
“Unreal Engine 5 will be available in preview in early 2021, and in full release late in 2021, supporting next-generation consoles, current-generation consoles, PC, Mac, iOS, and Android.
“We’re designing for forward compatibility, so you can get started with next-gen development now in UE4 and move your projects to UE5 when ready.
“We will release Fortnite, built with UE4, on next-gen consoles at launch and, in keeping with our commitment to prove out industry-leading features through internal production, migrate the game to UE5 in mid-2021.”
