Must-see: Epic's stunning 'next-gen' Unreal video

StonecoldMC on 9 Mar '11 said:

Bloody Hell !!

One day my friends, one day . . . . .

justforkicks101 on 9 Mar '11 said:

omg its fmv like.. seems like ive been saying that for many moons

ste hicky on 9 Mar '11 said:

yawn.

altitude2k on 9 Mar '11 said:

Yeah, that's hugely more impressive in motion.

TykerD3 on 9 Mar '11 said:

It looks great, and is drawn in real time...so does that mean the next gen of gaming will look like this, with you fully controlling the 'hero'? Will there be screen tearing? Will the FPS drop? If a full game looked that good it would be 100gbs at least.....so next gen xbox must have blu-ray or similar?

waltyftm on 9 Mar '11 said:

Looks good, But it was just a cutscene NO actual gameplay or interaction.

El Mag on 9 Mar '11 said:

Here's my proposal for what the next generation of gaming will look like. Look at his face....amazing.

http://pimpin09.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/ugly-smile.jpg

originalbadboy on 9 Mar '11 said:

What the article fails to mention is that this is running on FOUR GTX 500 cards ... so not really suprising ...

BenJy on 9 Mar '11 said:

The graphics may look pretty damn awesome but developers have a long way to go to make the movements of characters limbs, facial expressions and mannerisms more human.

buffig on 9 Mar '11 said:

Looks good, But it was just a cutscene NO actual gameplay or interaction.

It doesnt matter if it's rendered in real time with no pre rendered assets. It means that you can achieve that level of fidelity in game. The actual interaction does not require a great deal of power. In this instance, it would be possible for a user to move the camera around in real time while the scene played out.

runadumb on 9 Mar '11 said:

What the article fails to mention is that this is running on FOUR GTX 500 cards ... so not really suprising ...

I believe it was 3 580GTX's

buffig on 9 Mar '11 said:

What the article fails to mention is that this is running on FOUR GTX 500 cards ... so not really suprising ...

I believe it was 3 580GTX's

I think I read that Epic suggested it wouldnt take much work to reach this level on a single 580GTX and that there's a lot of room for optimisation.

runadumb on 9 Mar '11 said:

I believe it was 3 580GTX's

I think I read that Epic suggested it wouldnt take much work to reach this level on a single 580GTX and that there's a lot of room for optimisation.

Not to put words in your month but do you not mean he suggested overtime a single card would be possible? Next gen 2 cards, gen after 1 and then finally maybe the following gen would be midrange. I heard him say that.
That means midrange is 3 generations away, or roughly 3 and a half years. Kind of puts all this into perspective. Unless the next gen consoles aren't coming out till 2014 we may not see this level of graphics for some time yet.
Shame as the ultra crazy high-end PC can do it now. I would expect to be doing it next year with my next upgrade.

Anyway, it looks stunning even in that low def handheld footage.

EDIT: Gametrailers has the real version. Can't watch it till I get home

boskersrevenge on 9 Mar '11 said:

*shrugs*

Show me a game running on domestic, readily available hardware for the masses, then I'll be impressed.

sakaspuds on 9 Mar '11 said:

you can never keep up with pc gaming, its easier to make a short tech demo with all the bells and whistles, but it will be many years before you see realism of that level, in game, if at all, personally i'd rather have 1080p and solid 60fps, and slightly less impressive graphics, than really good graphics running at 15-20fps with sub-hd resolution, i hope the next gen console games are all 1080p and 60fps, perhaps bluray wont even be big enough for the next gen consoles, time will tell, but this sure is an impressive demo

lmimmfn on 9 Mar '11 said:

Not to put words in your month but do you not mean he suggested overtime a single card would be possible? Next gen 2 cards, gen after 1 and then finally maybe the following gen would be midrange. I heard him say that.
That means midrange is 3 generations away, or roughly 3 and a half years. Kind of puts all this into perspective. Unless the next gen consoles aren't coming out till 2014 we may not see this level of graphics for some time yet.
Shame as the ultra crazy high-end PC can do it now. I would expect to be doing it next year with my next upgrade.

Anyway, it looks stunning even in that low def handheld footage.

Theres no way a single midrange card in 3 years time is going to match the power of 3 of the current high end cards, 1 high end card( not SLI or Crossfired card ) in 3 years time might come close( theres only about a 40% improvement per year in gpu processing power improvements ).

Its not really showing anything new though, most of that stuff has been available in games for the past 4 years( Crysis, Metro 2033 etc. )

buffig on 9 Mar '11 said:

Was the ATI R600 series based on the xbox 360's GPU which came out something like 6-8 months after the xbox 360? Would you envisage custom GPUs being used in next gen consoles exceeding the power of whatever GPU is available 18 months from now, ie, a GPU a great deal faster than a GTX590?

gympion on 9 Mar '11 said:

looks amazing, however I'd like to see Unreal rendering some large outdoor environments (like seen in the first Crysis) before I judge how good an engine this really is. Epics efforts always suck massively in this department - when have we ever seen a cool forest and rolling hills with Unreal tech?

TOKEN on 9 Mar '11 said:

I wonder if there'll stick GTX 500 in the new consoles?
wow did you see that things head exsplode.

TOKEN on 9 Mar '11 said:

Was the ATI R600 series based on the xbox 360's GPU which came out something like 6-8 months after the xbox 360? Would you envisage custom GPUs being used in next gen consoles exceeding the power of whatever GPU is available 18 months from now, ie, a GPU a great deal faster than a GTX590?

pc games never really use the power of a GPU,only consoles do.

runadumb on 9 Mar '11 said:

Theres no way a single midrange card in 3 years time is going to match the power of 3 of the current high end cards, 1 high end card( not SLI or Crossfired card ) in 3 years time might come close( theres only about a 40% improvement per year in gpu processing power improvements ).

Its not really showing anything new though, most of that stuff has been available in games for the past 4 years( Crysis, Metro 2033 etc. )

I thought he was being optimistic as well. Also considering just how big, hot and power hungry the high-end cards are I just can't see that kinda power hitting consoles for a LONG time. Which means this kind of GFX level just won't be seen. At Least not for ages.
There is always ways to improve the engine and help it cheat effects with less performance hit as well.
We will have a better idea when the new cards with a sexy dieshrink come out later this year. Hoping for a bigger than normal leap in performance.

However this is leaps and bounds over crysis and Metro. Looks like a proper next gen leap.

ricflair on 9 Mar '11 said:

Was the ATI R600 series based on the xbox 360's GPU which came out something like 6-8 months after the xbox 360? Would you envisage custom GPUs being used in next gen consoles exceeding the power of whatever GPU is available 18 months from now, ie, a GPU a great deal faster than a GTX590?

pc games never really use the power of a GPU,only consoles do.

Tish and fipsy!

paul on 9 Mar '11 said:

holy s**te f**king mental

TheCrimsonFenix on 9 Mar '11 said:

Looks just as unbelievable as the pictures!! Unbelievable as in games aren't going to look like this. Anyone getting excited for this thinking this is how your games will look in real time with a s**t load of effects running all at the same time... prepare to be disappointed. You'll be waiting a long time.

ffcoppolla on 9 Mar '11 said:

Looks just as unbelievable as the pictures!! Unbelievable as in games aren't going to look like this. Anyone getting excited for this thinking this is how your games will look in real time with a s**t load of effects running all at the same time... prepare to be disappointed. You'll be waiting a long time.

So you contradicted yourself by saying games WILL look like this, just not in the next couple of years?

TOKEN on 9 Mar '11 said:

Not to put words in your month but do you not mean he suggested overtime a single card would be possible? Next gen 2 cards, gen after 1 and then finally maybe the following gen would be midrange. I heard him say that.
That means midrange is 3 generations away, or roughly 3 and a half years. Kind of puts all this into perspective. Unless the next gen consoles aren't coming out till 2014 we may not see this level of graphics for some time yet.
Shame as the ultra crazy high-end PC can do it now. I would expect to be doing it next year with my next upgrade.

Anyway, it looks stunning even in that low def handheld footage.

Theres no way a single midrange card in 3 years time is going to match the power of 3 of the current high end cards, 1 high end card( not SLI or Crossfired card ) in 3 years time might come close( theres only about a 40% improvement per year in gpu processing power improvements ).

Its not really showing anything new though, most of that stuff has been available in games for the past 4 years( Crysis, Metro 2033 etc. )

why not?iits the GPU not the hole card they could stick 3 GPU'S in the new console, 720 could have 4.7 ghz cpu 4 GB ram?

TheCrimsonFenix on 9 Mar '11 said:

Meaning games are simply not going to look this impressive in real time when used in a proper video game, within the next couple of years. Hell, it'll be even longer. Tech demos like these more often than not try to boast what games will look like very shortly, then end up producing something that is half as impressive. It's nothing new, people have been doing it for years. Seems the people who genuinely believe this will be the final result of whatever is released soon, don't change either.

g_marrs on 9 Mar '11 said:

*shrugs*

Show me a game running on domestic, readily available hardware for the masses, then I'll be impressed.

I think this is Epic's, like Crytek's recent video, push that they're ready for new console hardware.

ricflair on 9 Mar '11 said:

*shrugs*

Show me a game running on domestic, readily available hardware for the masses, then I'll be impressed.

I think this is Epic's, like Crytek's recent video, push that they're ready for new console hardware.

I agree. And it's a showing of what is possible with better hardware, at least this is the actual engine and not FMV mock ups of what they think it will look like.

buffig on 9 Mar '11 said:

Meaning games are simply not going to look this impressive in real time when used in a proper video game, within the next couple of years. Hell, it'll be even longer. Tech demos like these more often than not try to boast what games will look like very shortly, then end up producing something that is half as impressive. It's nothing new, people have been doing it for years. Seems the people who genuinely believe this will be the final result of whatever is released soon, don't change either.

I dont agree with this entirely. Here is the original Unreal Engine 3 tech demo from 2 years before the Xbox 360 launched. This is how Epic envisaged the next generation after the original xbox. I remember seeing this and being blown away. The current gen has easily surpassed this and the same things as you are saying now were being said at the time that this video was first shown

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1m7T5ay_8DI

Cazy008 on 9 Mar '11 said:

Good bit of CGI they got there.

Barca Azul on 9 Mar '11 said:

Impressive, but I also remember when this very mag about 20 years ago or more predicted what graphics we could expect in the future and its already been suppassed.

However, im in no rush for a next gen console TBH. id like to see what they can squeeze out of this gen still yet.

TheCrimsonFenix on 9 Mar '11 said:

Meaning games are simply not going to look this impressive in real time when used in a proper video game, within the next couple of years. Hell, it'll be even longer. Tech demos like these more often than not try to boast what games will look like very shortly, then end up producing something that is half as impressive. It's nothing new, people have been doing it for years. Seems the people who genuinely believe this will be the final result of whatever is released soon, don't change either.

I dont agree with this entirely. Here is the original Unreal Engine 3 tech demo from 2 years before the Xbox 360 launched. This is how Epic envisaged the next generation after the original xbox. I remember seeing this and being blown away. The current gen has easily surpassed this and the same things as you are saying now were being said at the time that this video was first shown

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1m7T5ay_8DI

Big difference being that video was obviously believable and the things on display actually implemented usefully. The video gave an honest straight forward representation. This new video is showing the exact same kind of fancy tech such as shadowing and lighting, whilst wrapping it up in some far fetched cgi like
video. And it's the latter that people will believe it to look like. These videos these days seem to be made with the realisation that graphics are only slightly improving because there really isn't all that much they can keep on improving. So they then make it look far more impressive than it actually seems by making some soulless little video that tech geeks and the gullible alike, think is amazing.

Bring back simple lighting and physics presentations I say. No Pixar wannabe crap.

gympion on 9 Mar '11 said:

For anyone that's interested Epic have just released the new UDK that quite unbelievably includes all of these features! Meaning anyone can go play about with it and potentially make your own games that look like this

Imaduck on 9 Mar '11 said:

WOW

Legrasse on 9 Mar '11 said:

God knows what happened to these guys. There was a time when they even developed their games with Linux users in mind, now they're completely pussy whipped. Good times.

starsail on 9 Mar '11 said:

That's unreal, nearly as good as Heavy Rain ...

I josh, good standards but I wonder how it will translate to a fully fledged game (and how much it will cost). Don't think we'll see to many games like this in the future unless they're the biggest franchises but, the games that offer this level of realism will be most welcome.

Who said its not about the graphics LOL

Paul_Boland2 on 9 Mar '11 said:

The environment looks great!! Shame about the promotion of Death Sticks though, totally destroys the videos look.

FAUNA on 9 Mar '11 said:

Graphics tech aside, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE MAKE A REAL PS3/360 GAME OF THIS!!! Even if it doesn't look quite this good (...which current-gen graphics aren't too far off from). PLEASE EPIC. Please...

murphy7801 on 9 Mar '11 said:

Graphics tech aside, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE MAKE A REAL PS3/360 GAME OF THIS!!! Even if it doesn't look quite this good (...which current-gen graphics aren't too far off from). PLEASE EPIC. Please...

Thats the spirit

corkscru74 on 10 Mar '11 said:

Bring back simple lighting and physics presentations I say. No Pixar wannabe crap.

Oh you're just Ants at a picnic!

ilovenewtech on 11 Mar '11 said:

AWSOME!!!!!! Man that blew me away, but did it have to be so violent. Couldn't they have demoed "Wii Carnival games" it would be more appropriate for the kiddies. Never mind it's still totaly wow.

TheCrimsonFenix on 11 Mar '11 said:

AWSOME!!!!!! Man that blew me away, but did it have to be so violent. Couldn't they have demoed "Wii Carnival games" it would be more appropriate for the kiddies. Never mind it's still totaly wow.

You missed, "GO TEAM EPIC GO YEAH!!!"