Apparently, this is all rendered from the game engine, sans a couple of cut scenes - likely during the scenes featuring The Construct.
I don't play games anymore but this might get me back. The graphics look remarkable, especially since this is at the demo stage. I imagine that developers will further refine and optimize this software over time.
I still remember watching that and thinking I don't even care if Naughty Dog doesn't have any more story to tell, I need one more Uncharted from them ASAP
'Cause if this engine can do what's in THAT video, I can only imagine what the proprietary stuff is gonna kick out
8. "RE: I didn't even think about getting in a car" In response to Reply # 2
But you were supposed to get in Dynamic Accidents?!
I get that I'm overreaching, but the one thing I was hoping this demo was going to show was the ability to have all the building be actual buildings that you could somehow walk in, even if they were just hallways of doors like the Matrix for now lol. Just one of those things games in cities always feels like they lack.
4. "Hopefully this will serve as a benchmark" In response to Reply # 0
for other game developers planning to use the same game engine for the PS5.
My actual interest in this Matrix game is on the fence because I haven't watched the other Matrix sequels and I have a fleeting suspicion this game might be pretty to look at, but will be shallow and boring in terms of the gameplay. Hopefully I am wrong in that latter assessment.
"Sean sparks like John Starks, nah, Sean ball like John Wall" - Rest In Power Forever Sean Price.
5. "This isn't going to be a game. This is Epic Special Projects" In response to Reply # 4
One benefit of all that Fortnite money is they got to double down on Unreal 5 and create an internal team whose only point is to prove concepts; Unreal is probably still more well-known than Unity but Unity has a much, much larger market share because it's so much better suited for small teams and small games.
This is the really eye-opening part, though the whole thing is worth a read:
"But what the team are looking to emphasise is how dynamic this system is and the opportunities this gives to developers. The Matrix Awakens was created by a relatively small team with around 20 to 30 people handling the assets and around 50 to 70 staff members in the team as a whole. Towards the end of the project, the project Slack channel increased to around 200 members as further personnel - such as marketing - entered the conversation. However, the process of creating the demo itself has led to significant optimisation to the point where if the project was rebooted from scratch, it could be achieved much more quickly.
Jerome Platteux explains: "Now, we will be so much faster, we're building the track when we are on the train itself - and sometimes we're building the train at the same time." Michal Valient adds that, "We're building the train... and the train's on fire.""
So there's a lot of caveats in there about things they did almost intentionally just to prove it was running on your console, like frame drops between camera jump cuts, or not working too hard on the physics engine's damage model for cars so it would feel less like a finished product.
But yea, this is playable on home consoles which is pretty wild for a tech demo, you almost never see a company that confident in their engine that they let the general public fuck around with it. The other demo I posted above is also playable behind closed doors for devs looking to license Unreal 5, but Epic's done working on them
10. "Thank you for that info" In response to Reply # 5
Oddly enough, I still have the same mindset I had in my original post. The level of graphical detail I saw from the demo was quite impressive, but I can see actual gameplay being somewhat dull.
Pretty cool how malleable and collaborative this effort seems to be.
"Sean sparks like John Starks, nah, Sean ball like John Wall" - Rest In Power Forever Sean Price.
9. "I took a screenshot on the second tallest building" In response to Reply # 7
where one of the signs was, of the ventilation and all that stuff on top. Even getting as close as the flying cam let you, it looked like a real picture. The level of detail is crazy.