Epic unveiled its new engine, the Unreal Engine 5 with a jaw dropping tech demo that looks quite more impressive than any thing we have yet to see for the upcoming console generation.
The demo is running on PS5 hardware which is something that Sony needed badly (marketing wise), as much has been said about its underpowered hardware in comparison to the Series X.
Underpowered as the PS5 might be, the demo clearly shows that the system is clearly a leap from current consoles, and perhaps that the Hardware is not far away from the Series X in its capacity for graphic fidelity.
The engine introduces Epic’s Lumen global illumination solution which allows for realistic real time lighting in the environments, and perhaps this solution is a viable alternative to Ray Tracing which is more taxing on the hardware.
The global illumination shown in the demo is so impressive that maybe, even if the PS5 can’t do Ray Tracing ( some suspect it can’t, at least not to the same degree that the Series X is able to thanks to its advantage in compute units), it can offer comparable visuals to Microsoft’s more powerful console.
The Engine will be – like all Unreal engines- available for game development 0n all platforms. For now, at least, the PS5 shows that it isn’t over its head against the Series X.
You can watch the Tech Demo below: