As Ultiverse continues on its journey to bridge the metaverse and traditional gaming, there are several key foundational elements that must be considered and executed upon to achieve our vision of an immersive, AAA-quality world integrated with Web3. One of those keys is graphical fidelity, so let’s take a look at what Unreal Engine 5 has changed and how it allows our team to create a next-gen experience on the blockchain.
What is Unreal Engine?
Unreal Engine is a video and computer game development environment that first appeared in 1998 and is becoming increasingly popular among both indie developers and AAA studios. On the other hand, Unreal Engine is a set of tools that developers use to create and manipulate visual effects, sounds, physics, and other aspects of 3D production.
Over the years, the engine has undergone many iterations, with each version improving it and adding various new features that developers could use to create virtual worlds. Unreal Engine 5 is the most powerful and integrated engine released to date, combining modern graphics and visual design with audio, dynamic lighting, and animation.
Unreal Engine 5 is also better optimized than previous iterations, ensuring that players can experience Ultiverse without needing a high-end gaming laptop with the latest graphics card.
Let’s take a closer look at some of the features and systems of Unreal Engine 5 and how they are used in the development of Terminus and Endless Loop for Ultiverse.
Lumen
Whether it’s the Terminus metaverse or the many vast worlds begging to be explored in Endless Loop, realistic lighting is key to creating an immersive gaming experience for players.
Lumen is a new global illumination system in Unreal Engine 5 that allows our team to create ultra-realistic lighting that dynamically interacts with everything in the environment, from the rising alien sun in Endless Loop to small details such as a lamp in one of the NFT galleries in Terminus.
Nanite
Nanite is a virtual geometry system in Unreal Engine 5 that offers significant advantages when creating huge environments with a huge amount of detail, such as in Endless Loop. It allows us to scan and transfer real-world environments and topography into Ultiverse, enabling us to achieve photorealistic images without compromising game performance, such as frame rate.
Mass AI
So far, we’ve focused on graphics, but there are also new features that will significantly improve the realism of the gameplay in Ultiverse. The new Mass AI system allows us to create dynamic NPCs in an open world, where each of them has their own simulations that work independently of the player’s location. As a result, creatures and characters in Ultiverse will become much more realistic and dynamic, which will significantly enhance the player’s immersion in the game.
