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S.t.a.l.k.e.r 2 is confirmed to be running on UE5

Yoboman

Member
Are you talking about Engines or games?
Also Nanite can only be used on static meshes.
As I said devs literally hold back, the high polys they make could crash a DCC let alone the GPUs in the current gen consoles.

Nanite is amazing technology and probably more engines will have similar technologies, but other engines and developers arent being left in the dust.
Clever culling could produce anything you see in Unreal Engine 5 the Nanite workflow is what Epic are most proud of with that tech.
If we look at dynamic objects I dont really see anything in Unreal other engines couldnt do.
The Nanite triangle budget is what makes this engine so amazing right now.

Give GSC pretty much any of the AAA engines and they would produce a very similar if not exactly the same looking game.

Note that engines very rarely actually dictate how graphically amazing a game looks.
People just think that because they dont understand the concept of a game engine.
The idea it can "only" be used on static environments seems like a big limitation. Until you realise that describes 95% of a scene in any game. I mean unless you're making a big physics based world then most geometry can be static aside from things like the character, foliage and debris. All of which are relatively cheap and can be combined with nanite existing in other materials. And most of those are already very high quality in most games like character models

The area for games that they need to improve mostly is the quality and quantity of detail in the environment. Something like TLOU2 looks amazing, but the detail in the environment of STALKER 2 is next level and they both have similar post apocalyptic environments

I think for other games to keep up they'll need a solution similar to Nanite
 

Lucky8BB

Banned
Yeah this is a step above all of that in most areas and the UE5 tech demos the same

Only area TLOU2 beats this is character rendering and animation. Density of detail in the environments with native is a huge plus for UE5 that other engines will have trouble catching up to
Character models in TLOU2/Uncharted4 looks good, but only during cutscenes.
 

CamHostage

Member
So, cool news, it's exciting to be moving past the demoscene portion of UE5 and get some actual games on it.

...I am confused what this means right now though? (Same as some others in the thread have said, I don't think it's clear what it means to be "running on UE5" yet this early on.) So hopefully we'll get a little more clarity soon on what the state of the project actually is for UE5 and how it has factored into the development process.

Because we just saw a few weeks ago what explained to be the current state of working with UE5 on Xbox Series X via that GDC demo/talk, and it's some rocks that catch fire. I'm grossly summing what the Alpha Point project was made for here (it wasn't just to show off, they did it for analysis and process workout and constructive feedback,) but The Coalition tells of how it is building up the basic blocks for MS as they work as a foundation studio with Epic to optimize and run tests for the engine on the console so that it's ready for all Xbox game developers to use it; then GSC Game World comes around less than a month later casually saying that they're in full production with UE5 and will have a game on it in a year. It's confusing, which is it: is UE5 still in a liquid state that's still being shaped for use, or is UE5 almost ready to ship games with?



Thing is, I think it may be both, and it'll be interesting to see how games announce using this tech, because UE5 is a different upgrade path from UE4. Instead of rewriting everything, it's almost a polish and new technology system layered on top of a solid base. To use Nanite and Lumen, you practically just flip a switch on your compatible UE4 assets. (And you don't have to use either and can still be making a "UE5 game", but then, what's the advantage there besides some of the dev suite improvements if the engine is otherwise more or less the same as UE4?) Almost all of the amazing UE5 demos you see on Youtube are actually projects built in UE4 and converted up, with Lumen substituted for the original lighting system (some of which used raytracing and other third-party lighting plugins previously and looked really good if not better before Lumen,) and/or maybe some Nanite replication thrown in to show off. Basically, when UE5 is finished and stable and shipped, it seems like there will be no reason NOT to have every Unreal game deployed as a UE5 game. Almost everything could benefit from porting up, and there's a fallback method in place for past-gen platforms that cannot use Nanite and Lumen, you have to build the project for both and replace everything Nanite or Lumen gives (as well as suffer the performance hit if you put a bajillion Nanite elements in and can't simplify them enough...) Unless something goes wrong with the new systems, UE5 will be everything UE4 is, but better, and potentially WAY better if you use Nanite and Lumen.

So, good news here to get UE5 things started, although what we're ultimately looking out for isn't just, "My game is a UE5 game"; we're looking for somebody to say, "My game was made from scratch to make full use of UE5." Meaning, we built our landscapes for "infinite" micropolygon meshes, we constructed our scenes with Lumen lighting in mind, we designed our sounds for MetaSounds, etc. What will be the difference between a game that was in the works normally in Unreal versus a game that was built ground-up for UE5 features. And also, will there be a big "leap" when that happens, or will it feel more like a gradual curve? (There's already some amazing tech services out there, and the combo of UE4+next-gen+money/time can already be incredible even without the advancements of UE5.)

I don't think STALKER 2 is at game that leaps into that latter category. It's been in the works since 2018, and it's releasing in April of next year. (UE5 may not even be out of Early Access by then and is still in core development right now, though maybe it's stable enough for GSC to build upon it if they already have all their UE4 systems solid and in good shape against the preview build?) But that's not a bad thing! As a game in the former category, it impresses right away, whether or not the trailer we saw was UE5 production material, and them using UE5 this early on (we've only had a handful of developers committing to UE5 so far, which feels low for how amazing the 2020&2021 demos were so hopefully that'll ramp up) is promising news that the tech and tools are in shape to go into retail projects.
 
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CamHostage

Member
Thats wild! I thought for sure those Unreal 5 titles would come much later based on them not finishing the engine, I'm not sure legally how any of that shit works lol

I don't think it legally matters (especially for a pro studio, as opposed to an indie who don't have Epic on speeddial,) it's just a matter if it's ready for what they're working with. If everything they were working on fit into place with even the early UE5 systems, I believe they could go ahead and use it.

I'm only guessing, but it sort of sounds like what happened was that STALKER 2 was coming up on really solid UE4 systems, and GSC had a meeting a few months ago (some developers apparently got UE5 pre-preview builds in November, then the Early Access came out for public use in May) of like, "Hey team, good news: Udo just did some tests with our Unreal Engine systems and they're surprisingly compatible with what Epic is doing on the brand new Unreal coming soon. So, fuck it, let's try and use it. We're going to stop all optimization work on polygonal objects that can use Nanite, and if you're hanging a new lamp or adding an additional light effect let's see how Lumen plays into it, don't go too crazy with it in case there's problems, but if our calculations are right, everything we've done will flow together and we'll be first out with a UE5 retail game."

You apparently can't "downgrade" a project from UE5 to UE4, so it sounds tricky to be so early, (though you shouldn't be fully stuck, much of your work is outside the actual engine,) but they should be able to build a lot on an understanding of what the floor feels like, and if it feels solid, maybe they can (and thus did) go ahead with it.

Lumen....well I dont know how performant theyve gotten it at this stage, if they targeting 60fps and a reasonable resolution even with TSR id think they would be using Lumen on low or some other form of lighting engine, they are pretty talented team they could have their own GI solution knowing they were going to need a day/night cycle.

I would figure they're mostly using their existing lighting rigs, and substituting and/or augmenting with Lumen. As with a lot of other Unreal systems, Lumen is not all-or-nothing, so if they have a high-performance GI solution (or if it'd just be a huge setback to reset every light for Lumen use,) they'd stick with it and try some things out here or there where they might see some improvement.

This project is 3 years in and ships in 8 months, they would have needed to be on their own by now. It doesn't seem to make sense replace to everything they're doing so deep into production, but the post-morts will be interresting to read on how much they actually changed when UE5 came into the picture for them.

UE5 seems like its so far ahead of the pack with graphical capability

I wonder how long it will take other devs to catch up

Eh, be careful confusing the engine with the technology systems. This is a UE5 game too. The new Unreal Engine has some great new features, but it all still has to be used right.

I assume you're primarily talking about Nanite and Lumen, which both look amazing, but Epic isn't the only company working towards global illumination or virtual polygon meshes.
 

Yoboman

Member
Character models in TLOU2/Uncharted4 looks good, but only during cutscenes.
Absolute nonsense. Gameplay photo mode:

qBnX36r.jpg
JGfqp3I.png
1qddF0y.jpg
5x0XZvF.png
gANhESJ.jpg
XhJxoKR.png
 

Yoboman

Member
Eh, you're sugarcoating it. I'm playing the game right now and it looks nothing like those screenshots during gameplay. It still looks fantastic but those aren't even remotely representative of when actually you're controlling the character.
Those are literally the character models in the game, not sure what more you want?
 

kingfey

Banned
Those are literally the character models in the game, not sure what more you want?
The photo mode is different than gameplay mode.


In photo mode, the game suspends everything, except the area you are taking picture of. Its is why photo mode looks crispy and beautiful, compared to the actual gameplay.

An in-game mode which allows players to pause the action on screen and manipulate the camera to take a screenshot. First seen in Gran Turismo 4.

 
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Yoboman

Member
The photo mode is different than gameplay mode.


In photo mode, the game suspends everything, except the area you are taking picture of. Its is why photo mode looks crispy and beautiful, compared to the actual gameplay.

An in-game mode which allows players to pause the action on screen and manipulate the camera to take a screenshot. First seen in Gran Turismo 4.


We are talking about character models, there is no change in assets
 

kingfey

Banned
We are talking about character models, there is no change in assets
When gameplay is going, everything is all over the place, due to what is happening in the game. But once you freeze it, Everything would focus on the character model. Its why you have these beautiful pictures.

Its more of Empty downtown, vs crowded downtown. The photo mode is empty downtown, while the crowded downtown, is when the game isnt on photo mode.

In photo mode, the game suspends everything,
 
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Arsic

Member
This is high on my list of most wanted. Never even played the first one. Considered it but then saw how ugly the game looks lol.

I can wait for #2.
 
S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl is one of those games I've had my eye for a very long time but just haven't quite pulled the trigger on.

I've done research on the type of mods I would install, and watched a few playthroughs to get a feel for it.

Can my fellow Gafs give me that final push to pull the trigger, finally?

Cause I've been teetering between this game and the original Deus Ex.
 

Yoboman

Member
When gameplay is going, everything is all over the place, due to what is happening in the game. But once you freeze it, Everything would focus on the character model. Its why you have these beautiful pictures.

Its more of Empty downtown, vs crowded downtown. The photo mode is empty downtown, while the crowded downtown, is when the game isnt on photo mode.

In photo mode, the game suspends everything,
How is that relevant to anything? Photo mode can add better post processing and filters but it is still using all of the in game assets
 

kingfey

Banned
How is that relevant to anything? Photo mode can add better post processing and filters but it is still using all of the in game assets
the game suspends everything

Gameplay doesnt suspend anything. When you suspend everything, just to take a picture, then the final product wouldnt be the same as the gameplay one. Hope you understand that.
 

Yoboman

Member
the game suspends everything

Gameplay doesnt suspend anything. When you suspend everything, just to take a picture, then the final product wouldnt be the same as the gameplay one. Hope you understand that.
I dont think you know what you're talking about. But that's okay
 

hlm666

Member
How is that relevant to anything? Photo mode can add better post processing and filters but it is still using all of the in game assets
Well go into a corner spin the camera and take a screen shot during gameplay not in photo mode and show us how that close up looks like the photomode shot. There's a reason you didn't do that and we all know it.
 

Yoboman

Member
Well go into a corner spin the camera and take a screen shot during gameplay not in photo mode and show us how that close up looks like the photomode shot. There's a reason you didn't do that and we all know it.
I didnt take the screenshots

The point is the guy I quoted said it only looks good in cutscenes which is ridiculous
 
S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl is one of those games I've had my eye for a very long time but just haven't quite pulled the trigger on.

I've done research on the type of mods I would install, and watched a few playthroughs to get a feel for it.

Can my fellow Gafs give me that final push to pull the trigger, finally?

Cause I've been teetering between this game and the original Deus Ex.

Purchase the game off GOG and grab this package i made a while back - XpressTuning's Remaster Edition; I merged the best mods i could find after playing with them for a while to offer the best graphical upgrade out of all of them, and a few QoL features to polish the experience up. Here's a screenshot:

ss_luci_01-01-21_20-07-51_l01_e.jpg


Shadow of Chernobyl is my number 2 favorite game ever made (not a big fan of the other two tho), it's very unique and doesn't play like the average first person shooter - so be aware of that. Use weapons that are in great condition, and aim for the head/torso while (if the opportunity arises) crouching or low-crouching (ctrl+shift). Advance slowly, stay hidden from enemy fire (keep your distance once you've acquired a rifle with a mountable scope and position yourself accordingly).

There are a number of underlying mechanics that influence the gunplay for which you need to adjust, keep in check and learn to take advantage:
  • Default Gun Accuracy
  • Ammo type
  • Stance
  • Gun Condition
  • Varied damage multipliers based on specific body parts
  • Aiming through iron sights raises accuracy
  • Reduction of accuracy on rapid fire - meant to simulate recoil.
Early guns and sawn-off shotguns are low-tier inaccurate garbage with a 50 meter limit to their range, it's a rough start that push players to question if something is wrong with how the gunplay was designed. The design is based on progression, you will eventually get good weapons (with no limit) and as you gain some experience under your belt accuracy will be a non-issue.
 

CamHostage

Member
As I said devs literally hold back, the high polys they make could crash a DCC let alone the GPUs in the current gen consoles.
Nanite is amazing technology and probably more engines will have similar technologies, but other engines and developers arent being left in the dust.
Clever culling could produce anything you see in Unreal Engine 5 the Nanite workflow is what Epic are most proud of with that tech.

Right. So far, UE5's Nanite has primarily been used to show that making a game world badly is not so bad anymore because their system now won't smother under multitudes of carelessly placed objects. It looks great even in anyone's hands because it can simplify any massive object you throw at it, as many times as you throw it.

What we haven't seen much of yet is how Nanite will work when used well, or used in a professional game, with proper concern for disc space (in retail case) and asset production (assuming the studio is actually making its own assets instead of picking off UE Marketplace) and interactivity. We haven't seen a normal state of UE5 game making, a pro project made to sell to a customer. Maybe professional developers really will just settle for errant kitbashing because careful structuring and culling is not so much a concern anymore (plus you should be able to get a lot more out of your asset arsenal if you reuse at will, so in some ways that may be smart design to ignore the "proper" way and just do what works best on screen and on the disc,) but custom creation and careful asset management will still be part of the workflow. The Nanite showcases have been stupefying amazing for just putting untold gallons of polygons on screen, but that's all for show; an actual playable game will have more reasonable uses of objects in the game world more in line with either of the two Epic showcases, which are still impressive but not out of the league of doability (in some cases... the Nanite statue room part of the first demo is still pretty danged amazing) than what other engines can do.

And although UE5 is a mature and robust version of the technology it is introducing (particularly Nanite; Lumen has some competition out there but I've not seen many virtual geometry concepts used seriously before Nanite?), other developers and middleware providers have already been exploring this territory as well. (Brian Karis, the actual guy who built Nanite for UE5, was inspired by John Carmack talking about virtualized geometry back in 2008.)

Give GSC pretty much any of the AAA engines and they would produce a very similar if not exactly the same looking game.

I mean, we saw the game back in July of 2020 (and knew it was in development back in in 2018,) so unless STALKER 2 was always running in UE5 (doubtful, given how early UE5 was for Epic back then and how rudimentary Coalition's UE5 Alpha Point project was even this year... BTW, no early developer copy of UE5 is known to have been available outside Epic until late November 2020,) yeah, I'd imagine GSC pretty much would have to have produced (and did produce) the same-looking game on one of the other AAA engines besides UE5. Specifically, UE4.

 
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Leyasu

Banned
Yet another Xbox console exclusive with UE5

Xbox is home of UE5 games or UE5 best on Xbox. - Marketing tag line should be used by MS
This will be on the PS5 before the end of next year

Edit. Only 3 month exclusive apparently
 
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Purchase the game off GOG and grab this package i made a while back - XpressTuning's Remaster Edition; I merged the best mods i could find after playing with them for a while to offer the best graphical upgrade out of all of them, and a few QoL features to polish the experience up. Here's a screenshot:

ss_luci_01-01-21_20-07-51_l01_e.jpg


Shadow of Chernobyl is my number 2 favorite game ever made (not a big fan of the other two tho), it's very unique and doesn't play like the average first person shooter - so be aware of that. Use weapons that are in great condition, and aim for the head/torso while (if the opportunity arises) crouching or low-crouching (ctrl+shift). Advance slowly, stay hidden from enemy fire (keep your distance once you've acquired a rifle with a mountable scope and position yourself accordingly).

There are a number of underlying mechanics that influence the gunplay for which you need to adjust, keep in check and learn to take advantage:
  • Default Gun Accuracy
  • Ammo type
  • Stance
  • Gun Condition
  • Varied damage multipliers based on specific body parts
  • Aiming through iron sights raises accuracy
  • Reduction of accuracy on rapid fire - meant to simulate recoil.
Early guns and sawn-off shotguns are low-tier inaccurate garbage with a 50 meter limit to their range, it's a rough start that push players to question if something is wrong with how the gunplay was designed. The design is based on progression, you will eventually get good weapons (with no limit) and as you gain some experience under your belt accuracy will be a non-issue.

ohmygoodness, you're a saint.

Bookmarking the link and definitely going to give it a run once I complete my FONV playthrough.

Thank you so much for this man, I sincerely and truly appreciate it!
 

hlm666

Member
Sure thing man😂😂.

Uncharted 4


U4 and TLOU2 dont have dynamic GI, so there's always flat lighting during gameplay on character faces. In cutscens they are using additional lights just for character faces, but it cant be done in realtime gameplay.
His own screenshots proved the real thing wasn't close to the images in his first post. Only person he was fooling with that switch and bait was stevie wonder and I wasn't coming into it.
 

Jigsaah

Gold Member
Looks like a great Gamepass game. I had a friend quit the first Stalker because he could not find a gun.
How many times did you call him a filthy casual after he admitted this?

Hint: Once is not enough.
 
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GymWolf

Member
Source: https://www.thegamer.com/stalker-2-running-on-unreal-engine-5/

After a bit of speculation, GSC Game World today confirmed Stalker 2 is running on Unreal Engine 5. The upcoming title was already known to be running on the Unreal Engine, however, there was no indication whether that meant Unreal Engine 4 or Unreal Engine 5.

The announcement dropped as an unceremonious reply to an Unreal Engine post on Twitter. The official Stalker account made the brief announcement, then released a new image of the game in development.



E8hMs8ZXsAAAVVe

Oof, that some good looking wall\tree, this is what i expect from next gen meterials rendering (or even better).
 

SafeOrAlone

Banned
I'm truly looking forward to this game. I haven't played the first, but what I've seen and heard of it just really appeals to me - the heavy atmosphere, focus on survival, use of stealth.
Like a good Metro ;-)
 

Nemesisuuu

Member
Came into thread expecting some cheeki breeki, but as usual here we go with Sony bois comparisons, sigh.

I've replayed all 3 S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games last year and they are still some of the best gaming experiences available. Along the way it ruined Metro Exodus for me since it feels so on rails in comparison. Series is acquired taste tho, not for everybody. Quite hyped for this one (actually - only game I'm hyped for), but at the same time sceptical that it can recapture magic of older games. It looks great so far, hopefully it will deliver.

Oh, and the ost, I hope they nail bleak, hopeless sound of the OG ost.

 

Snake29

RSI Employee of the Year
Eh, you're sugarcoating it. I'm playing the game right now and it looks nothing like those screenshots during gameplay. It still looks fantastic but those aren't even remotely representative of when actually you're controlling the character.

Eh, finishend the game and it does look like that in-game lol. Maybe you should use the camera more and the photomode. Photomode doesn't change the character models.

You sure you're playing TloU2? Trying to downplay UE4 character models and TloU2 is some next level trolling/bullshit. Show me some in-game Gears models, i bet those look way more afwul.

Here you go

Straight gameplay turned into a corner:
7PgpzcB.jpg


Photo mode turned on:
dqwq5E8.jpg


Photo mode zoomed in with some filters:
SAF4WcH.jpg


Tell me what the big difference is again?

Ow they will nitpick wait for it....
 
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Nemesisuuu

Member
S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl is one of those games I've had my eye for a very long time but just haven't quite pulled the trigger on.

I've done research on the type of mods I would install, and watched a few playthroughs to get a feel for it.

Can my fellow Gafs give me that final push to pull the trigger, finally?

Cause I've been teetering between this game and the original Deus Ex.
Maybe the game won't catch you at first, it has some weird design choices in places - but in the end it's a flawed masterpiece, imo there's nothing quite like it. Completely unique game. There's tons of mods so you can tweak it to your liking, but for first playthrough I would recommend Zone Reclamation Project for closest to vanilla feel.
 
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