PLAYSTATION 5 and Xbox Series X games will boast graphics so good, they’ll be as realistic as a Hollywood blockbuster.
That’s according to top gaming boss Kim Liberi, who has hailed the high-powered consoles ahead of their respective releases later this year.
Speaking to the Official Playstation Magazine, Kim, who is chief technology officer at Epic Games, which makes Fortnite, claimed the Series X and PS5 would enable him to achieve his “lifelong dream” as a game-maker.
“It has been a lifelong dream of mine that real-time computer graphics, and in particular games, can be as believable and realistic as a movie,” he said.
“Next-gen graphics and processing power will not only make games more immersive, but will also enable entirely new gameplay concepts.
“These concepts can take advantage of fully dynamic environments and lighting, much-improved physics, smarter AI, and richer multiplayer experiences.”
Microsoft’s Series X and Sony’s PS5 are both scheduled for release ahead of Christmas, no neither company has revealed what their consoles will cost.
As well as bolstered graphics, each console will run at up to 8K resolution and boast lightning-fast loading times.
Epic Games is behind the Unreal Engine, a game engine that promises to revolutionise the next-generation of video games.
Epic released a video highlighting some of the tech’s astonishing capabilities in May – though games using the engine aren’t expected until late 2021.
Unreal Engine technology has even made its way to television, playing a key role in the special effects used for Star Wars: The Mandalorian on Disney+.
“For many years, the movie industry has been experimenting with Unreal Engine for previsualisation and cinematic shot design, and then last year Jon Favreau and LucasFilm made the leap to use Unreal to generate final pixels for in-camera visual effects on The Mandalorian,” Kim said.
“Yet, there is still the challenge that the movie industry creates almost infinitely complex assets, and for real-time content, we need simplified polygon meshes and normal maps. With Nanite, a new breakthrough technology in Unreal Engine 5, we have removed the barriers.
“You can now create environments with full-quality cinematic assets and the engine does all the heavy lifting, resulting in some truly photorealistic results.”
