Digital Foundry: PlayStation 5 / Unreal Engine 5 Reaction - Now This Is Next-Gen!

[ShiningBash]

UE4 Elemental Demo for Playstation 4 | Unreal Engine

At the PlayStation Meeting 2013, Epic Games showed its new Unreal Engine 4 "Elemental" demo, the first public real-time demonstration for PlayStation 4!Want ...

www.youtube.com

Don't forget, this was the equivalent last gen (only it wasn't controllable unlike this new demo)

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It is a massive improvement, but people are responding to that demo as if it's an actual game (a lot of ppl are understandably believing it's a PS5 game that the XSX can't handle). It's great promise for the future, but I'd like to see a real game that utilizes the techniques in the demo first.

 

[PLASTICA-MAN]

Dark1x Did they say if this will be exclusive to Windows 10 and DX12 only? Talking about Windows version cus there are people still using Windows 7 and 8 that wanna know.

 

[Stacey]

Watching again, I still absolutely hate alpha effects. Is there no way to make them not look shitty in 2020?

 

[Zedark]

You know what's even better imo? Open world games are significantly freed by the new generation and their SSDs. We know from Guerrilla Games that due to IO speed, Killzone Shadow fall loaded in 30 seconds of predicted gameplay into RAM. At current SSD speed, you need to load in only a few seconds. Now compare that to open world games: their 30 seconds of gameplay is in basically any direction, as opposed to a linear game like Killzone. Therefore, they should disproportionately benefit from the ability to refresh the entire RAM in a 3-4 seconds.

As incredible as this linear demo was, the real stunners compared to this gen are probably going to be the open world games.

 

[Deleted member 64666]

Perhaps that HZD2 rumor about Aloy's character model having millions and millions of triangles is true then.

 

[Domcorleone]

The first thing people saw running on a Series X was either Halo Infinite last year or Senua II. Both looked amazing.

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Can you give us a link to the real time gameplay for either of those games? Thanks

 

[-Le Monde-]

I want to see a first person game now. Also want to see next gen Resident Evil. :(

Hope we get to find out the data rate of this demo.

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Hope the df crew can ask around. :P

 

[Deleted member 12352]

 

[TooBusyLookinGud]

It is a massive improvement, but people are responding to that demo as if it's an actual game (a lot of ppl are understandably believing it's a PS5 game that the XSX can't handle). It's great promise for the future, but I'd like to see a real game that utilizes the techniques in the demo first.

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I think people are excited about what could be. I would hope that people are not expecting this to be the case for all Unreal 5 games.

 

[Deleted member 11276]

Dark1x Did they say if this will be exclusive to Windows 10 and DX12 only? Talking about Windows version cus there are people still using Windwos 7 and 8 that wanna know.

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Why would anyone be still on WIndows 7 and 8? Of course you won't get the latest graphics features on such outdated systems (which are a security risk anyway)

 

[gofreak]

I'm curious to know about Sony x Epic partnership in this, will PlayStation Studios other than Sony Bend use UE5? Did they work with the engineers behind engines like Decima? Are they sharing tech? It appears to be more than marketing.

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I don't think there's necessarily a formal partnership in that way. I think it's a conventional vendor/engine relationship, but they collabed on storage/IO related tech. Sony probably had a good contribution to make if they've been looking at this for longer than Epic, meanwhile it certainly is in their interests to have a key piece of middleware dovetail nicely with their hardware. That's probably about enough for Sony, and enough for Epic.

Of course studios might well use it more. But I guess it depends how they see their own tech stacks shaping up.

 

[blastprocessor]

That was impressive, but man we go through these every generation where we don't get that kind of graphic fidelity. I could be wrong.

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Well we got better looking games than EPICs PS4 tech demo so why wouldn't it get better than this?

 

[Vire]

The only thing I want to know really is if this exact demo (flying and all - taking into consideration the SSD) would be possible on Xbox Series X. Epic kinda sidestepping the question was lame af.

 

[Zedark]

How is the PS5 powerful enough to render 25 billion of tris in real time, (and that's just tris alone, with GI, 8k textures and everything else?) Surely it's not THAT much more powerful than last gen?! Right now the budget on a AAA PS4 game is like what, 20 mil?

This is some wizardry.

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I think they mean that the entire scene contains billions of polygons, not that billions are rendered at any one time. At any one time, most of the scene's objects are occluded (out of view in some manner - either outside field of view or obscured behind other geometry) and are therefore culled, such that only a small fraction of the geometry is rendered.

 

[PLASTICA-MAN]

Why would anyone be still on WIndows 7 and 8? Of course you won't get the latest graphics features on such outdated systems (which are a security risk anyway)

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Just asking I know some who are developing using UE4 and they are still using Windows 7 and 8.

 

[captainmal01]

I saw it was technically impressive in the beginning but I wasn't really blown away until the jumping section. The physics quality and movement speed were great, especially since it felt like she travelled kilometres in seconds.

 

[VinFTW]

The only thing I want to know really is if this exact demo (flying and all - taking into consideration the SSD) would be possible on Xbox Series X. Epic kinda sidestepping the question was lame af.

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??? Clearly it would be lol

 

[JahIthBer]

Why would anyone be still on WIndows 7 and 8? Of course you won't get the latest graphics features on such outdated systems (which are a security risk anyway)

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There is a lot of people who refuse to leave Windows 7, it's been a struggle to get my friend off of 7 because he thinks 10 is spyware or something.

 

[SimpleCRIPPLE]

I would buy this game. That flying sequence? Chills.

Can't wait. Day 1.

 

[VinFTW]

Can you give us a link to the real time gameplay for either of those games? Thanks

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This post is not going to age well

 

[Vire]

??? Clearly it would be lol

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Why clearly? The way that Tim Sweeny worded it and I'm paraphrasing, he was saying the SSD in the PS5 made that final scene possible.

 

[Belthazar90]

The PS4 demo for comparison

Unreal Engine 4: Real-Time PS4 Tech Demo

Epic Games shows off a new tech demo for Unreal Engine 4 running in real-time on PS4.

youtu.be

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Games ended up looking better than that by the end of the gen so I'm quite excited for what PS5 has in store for us.

 

[Hugare]

I went from playing FF 7R to Jedi Fallen Order

So seeing the character squeeze through a gap during the presentation sent shivers down my spine lol

I'm so tired of this technique for masking loadings. Improve on that, Epic.

Anyway, what really blew me away was the ending. Her flying ... Wow

I imagined the next Spiderman game, or God of War ...

 

[ElephantShell]

This was a smart move on Sony's part because now most people will associate UE5 with PS5 rather than the other platforms it supports.

This was a pretty smart marketing move.

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I agree, good use of advertising dollars. I don't know what it would cost them for this deal but mindshare is pretty valuable and this is all about making associations in people's heads.

 

[blastprocessor]

The demo is in 1440p30, you'll get more on PC! :D

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Deep pockets will be needed > £1300 easily.

 

[Broken Hope]

??? Clearly it would be lol

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Clearly? If the flying section required say 7GB/s or above data streaming rate to maintain that fidelity then no it would require cut backs for the XSX, which is why we need to know what data rate this demo, specifically that section required.

 

[Euler007]

It is a massive improvement, but people are responding to that demo as if it's an actual game (a lot of ppl are understandably believing it's a PS5 game that the XSX can't handle). It's great promise for the future, but I'd like to see a real game that utilizes the techniques in the demo first.

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No one said XSX can't handle it. It's Unreal Engine 5 running "for real" on a PS5 and it looks great. The first few pages is full of people pointing out UE5 is multi-platform. It is what it is, a demonstration of what it can look like on the PS5 and it looks great.

 

[isahn]

This was definitely what I'd consider gameplay. It's actually surprisingly representative of a real game (input, character locomotion, real time physics, etc.)

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yes, real gameplay of a glorified walking simulator. I think it's better to look at this for what it really is: a real time tech demo of a new engine

 

[Qudi]

I started imagining Gravity Rush 3 with this level of detail when she started flying.

Now im sad.

 

[Earvin Infinity]

I'm curious to know about Sony x Epic partnership in this, will PlayStation Studios other than Sony Bend use UE5? Did they work with the engineers behind engines like Decima? Are they sharing tech? It appears to be more than marketing.

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PlayStation titles in the future will be day and date on EGS. Book it.

 

[ShiningBash]

Anthem was a vertical slice running on NASA PC.
This, is a vertical slice running on PS5 dev kit. That's really, really not the same thing.

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Anthem was a vertical slice of a game that never existed.
This is a vertical slice of a game that does not exist.

Both show what's possible, but the lesson from Anthem (and countless games/demos in the past) is that potential =/= reality. The big difference here is that there's zero reason to believe that either Epic or Sony are being deceptive about the technology (unlike a developer trying to sell a new IP). However, it's premature to jump to the conclusion that there will be games that look as good as this demo until we see something like Uncharted 5 that looks like this demo.

 

[Dr. Zoidberg]

This is an actual game? People keep saying this is gameplay, so is this a game in development? Or is it just a controllable demo? I'm at work so I can't hear the video.

 

[RoninStrife]

Guys, where can we download this in HQ? Is there a Gamersyde link ? Or is DF video the best quality?

 

[Domcorleone]

This post is not going to age well

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I have no doubt series x game will look fantastic. How can they not with those specs. Im arguing about seeing next gen first on xbox one when we've seen no real time gameplay or tech demo. That is just false. What we got today was actually playable its literally not the same as an in engine cutscene running at 24fps.

Do you disagree?

 

[Pai Pai Master]

This is an actual game? People keep saying this is gameplay, so is this a game in development? Or is it just a controllable demo? I'm at work so I can't hear the video.

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It's a playable demo created by the Unreal Engine team to showcase the improvements. It's not a real game in development intended to be played by anyone outside of a GDC-type environment. But it is running on a PS5 devkit.

 

[cartoon_soldier]

This is an actual game? People keep saying this is gameplay, so is this a game in development? Or is it just a controllable demo? I'm at work so I can't hear the video.

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It's a short gameplay segment developed by Epic on a PS5 dev kit. It's not an actual game, I mean it doesn't have AI or anything.

 

[Domcorleone]

This is an actual game? People keep saying this is gameplay, so is this a game in development? Or is it just a controllable demo? I'm at work so I can't hear the video.

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Playable tech demo

 

[VinFTW]

Why clearly? The way that Tim Sweeny worded it and I'm paraphrasing, he was saying the SSD in the PS5 made that final scene possible.

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Clearly? If the flying section required say 7GB/s or above data streaming rate to maintain that fidelity then no it would require cut backs for the XSX, which is why we need to know what data rate this demo, specifically that section required.

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Lol... the XSX isn't running with a 2006 HDD guys... scenes like this aren't tied exclusively to SSD speed.

 

[Broken Hope]

Why do people constantly say, XSX has a more powerful GPU than the PS5 so obviously everything the PS5 can do the XSX can do, whilst conveniently ignoring the twice as fast storage?

 

[Deleted member 10847]

Clearly? If the flying section required say 7GB/s or above data streaming rate to maintain that fidelity then no it would require cut backs for the XSX, which is why we need to know what data rate this demo, specifically that section required.

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Is that really important? Is there some goal to prove either some specific game (and this is not even a game) its not possible on Y or Z console?

 

[Broken Hope]

Lol... the XSX isn't running with a 2006 HDD guys... scenes like this aren't tied exclusively to SSD speed.

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That scene is tied very much to SSD speed, that scene will be streaming geometry and textures at speed.

 

[BitterFig]

I don't think XSX would have troubles with the flying scene. It seemed to have very repetitive assets. I don't think it was pushing the limits of PS5's SSD that it wouldn't run on XSX.

 

[Broken Hope]

Is that really important? Is there some goal to prove either some specific game (and this is not even a game) its not possible on Y or Z console?

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No goal, just people not understanding that just because the XSX has a better GPU that automatically means the PS5 has no advantages, ever.

 

[Pottuvoi]

How is the PS5 powerful enough to render 25 billion of tris in real time, (and that's just tris alone, with GI, 8k textures and everything else?) Surely it's not THAT much more powerful than last gen?! Right now the budget on a AAA PS4 game is like what, 20 mil?

This is some wizardry.

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It doesn't.

There is huge amount of detail that is never loaded to memory or displayed.
Objects are most likely loaded in such a way that polygons are close to pixel in size when loaded and rendered as such.

A very fine culling of objects so mostly visible polygons are ever rendered.

Virtual texturing so only visible areas and resolution is loaded.

 

[Shogmaster]

I don't think there's necessarily a formal partnership in that way. I think it's a conventional vendor/engine relationship, but they collabed on storage/IO related tech. Sony probably had a good contribution to make if they've been looking at this for longer than Epic, meanwhile it certainly is in their interests to have a key piece of middleware dovetail nicely with their hardware. That's probably about enough for Sony, and enough for Epic.

Of course studios might well use it more. But I guess it depends how they see their own tech stacks shaping up.

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AFAIK PS5 devs kits were out there much longer than XSX dev kits for 3rd parties. So naturally Epic would be more familar with it. Also UE5/PS5 is a nice marketing coincidence as well.

 

[Nzyme32]

Deep pockets will be needed > £1300 easily.

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Or the PC you already have if you have a decent one... like a bunch of us

 

[Praedyth]

I don't think there's necessarily a formal partnership in that way. I think it's a conventional vendor/engine relationship, but they collabed on storage/IO related tech. Sony probably had a good contribution to make if they've been looking at this for longer than Epic, meanwhile it certainly is in their interests to have a key piece of middleware dovetail nicely with their hardware. That's probably about enough for Sony, and enough for Epic.

Of course studios might well use it more. But I guess it depends how they see their own tech stacks shaping up.

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Yeah, Epic must have been one of the developers that told Cerny to pursue I/O. I really got curious because whether they will adopt UE5 or not, they still got to use their own engines for now and this demo sets the bar real high. I know a lot of people will say this is just a tech demo, but it does count as next-gen gameplay, I guess.

Can't wait for both First Parties, UE4 vs Proprietary Engines in the battle before UE5. (its just a joke)

 

[MaulerX]

It is a massive improvement, but people are responding to that demo as if it's an actual game (a lot of ppl are understandably believing it's a PS5 game that the XSX can't handle). It's great promise for the future, but I'd like to see a real game that utilizes the techniques in the demo first.

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Pretty much this. It's a pretty looking tech demo but it's exactly that. A tech demo whos sole purpose is to look pretty with nothing else running under the hood. I just want to see the actual games dammit! Games that we'll actually be playing this fall.

 

[Grayson]

tech demos are pretty and almost never look like the finished product.

We'll see how games look with this tech in 4-5 years...

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You're right. Tech demos are exceeded.

 

[Domcorleone]

I don't think XSX would have troubles with the flying scene. It seemed to have very repetitive assets. I don't think it was pushing the limits of PS5's SSD that it wouldn't run on XSX.

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Everything we saw today is most assuredly possible on the Series X. It just so happens a playable next gen demo that was visually impressive debut on PS5 first. When the actual games come out I dont doubt MS games will look impressive more so than this tech demo.