Epic Games Debuts Unreal Engine 5 Tech Demo

By: Bryce L. Jackson

Gaming journalist Geoff Keighley invited Epic Games on his Summer Games Fest series to showcase what they have in store for the next console generation.

Technical Director of Graphics Brian Karis and Special Projects Art Director Jerome Platteaux opened the pre-recorded video detailing all of there audio and visual design enhancements that will be capable on Unreal Engine 5. The tech demo shown ran on PlayStation 5 hardware, showing off the advancements in dynamic environments of Sony’s next console. It also represents the first game footage running on PS5 hardware.

The tech demo demonstrates photorealistic environment and lighting effects that aims to set the bar for games using UE5 in the next console generation. Geoff Keighley then interviewed CEO of Epic Games, Tim Sweeney as well as CTO Kim Liberi and VP of Engineering Nick Penwarde who gushed about the potential of their improvements to the game engine. They expect to see games using Unreal Engine 5 sometime in 2021 as well as upgrade existing games, like Fortnite. Some games that currently run on UE4 include Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, Tetris Effect, Valorant, and Dragon Ball FighterZ just to name a few.