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The Matrix Awakens: An Unreal Engine 5 Experience is up for PS5 and Xbox X/S

Lethal01

Member
I'm sure a dev team could iron out some issues for sure, but you can't just suddenly make all those reflections etc less taxing.

You often can though, we have no idea how much room they have to improve the code right now. You could have said the same about the GI last year but it's way more performant now.

not "suddenly" sure, but saying they can't decrease the cost by a lot is not really backed by anything aside by assuming the worst.
 
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Great to see that “now this is next gen” feel back, thought it was lacking a bit for a while and I can’t wait to see what developers do with UE5 in the coming years. Hoping next E3 we start to see more downloadable demos showcasing it off too.

How about a Cloverfield VR demo Epic?
 

Romulus

Member
You often can though, we have no idea how much room they have to improve the code right now. You could have said the same about the GI last year but it's way more performant now.

not "suddenly" sure, but saying they can't decrease the cost by a lot is not really backed by anything aside by assuming the worst.


How much more performant is GI now vs last year?
The detail here and reflections are simply better than something like Spiderman, and that's a very competent developer in insomniac. I don't see how something that looks this much better will just be less taxing or less expensive any time soon. I'm assuming simply by looking at the performance of this demo, which is bad. I understand optimization is a thing, but if they're spending all that time on assets and to show off their engine, why just ignore performance when they knew it would be subject to testing? My bet is they didn't know how to save performance on this pretty bare-bones demo.
 

RoadHazard

Gold Member
How much more performant is GI now vs last year?
The detail here and reflections are simply better than something like Spiderman, and that's a very competent developer in insomniac. I don't see how something that looks this much better will just be less taxing or less expensive any time soon. I'm assuming simply by looking at the performance of this demo, which is bad. I understand optimization is a thing, but if they're spending all that time on assets and to show off their engine, why just ignore performance when they knew it would be subject to testing? My bet is they didn't know how to save performance on this pretty bare-bones demo.

They didn't ignore performance. An article said that before optimization it was running at 15fps. So this is the optimized version, which is clearly still a bit too much for these consoles to handle (not by much though).
 
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SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
Is the start where Keanu is talking cgi or fmv I genuinely couldn’t tell?
everything is realtime except for two scenes that are pre-rendered because the data they needed for the shots was too big and wouldve increased the file size.

There is no CG, no FMV. EVERYTHING is realtime. I will try to find the quote.

Edit: D dyergram found it.

The video is all rendered in real-time with the exception of two shots, that were pre-rendered. When Neo and Trinity multiply each other, and one wide shot of the city. This was just because the data was so vast, there would have been a short time to load the assets, which would have broken the pacing of the experience. Other than those shots, the experience renders in real-time on a standard console.

 
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Romulus

Member
They didn't ignore performance. An article said that before optimization it was running at 15fps. So this is the optimized version, which is clearly still a bit too much for these consoles to handle (not by much though).

Well that's before bullets and explosives(matrix has alot of that). Ragdoll physics or whatever they use for bodies too, because as of now they just disappear.
 

Solarstrike

Gold Member
The point & shoot/on rails mechanic gave me flashbacks of some classic games. Wow. This game/demo is how a new Panzer Dragoon should look, friggin' real. SEGA should bring on some stellar modeling, rigging, and animation talent and let them go nuts.
 
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Kerotan

Member
While I understand the call for more 60fps games I see people having a misunderstanding with the generational upgrade that we are seeing in this generation.

People compared the graphics we have in 30fps last generation with the graphics we have in 60fps this generational ... it is really hard to have a generational feel in graphic looks when you are doubling or more the framerate... framerate increase is too expensive.

In a very bizarre comparison you can get a 30fps game on PS4 Pro for example and double the amount of power to reach 60fps... so you can have let say TLOU graphics in 60fps running in 8.4TFs GPU... so the PS5 has 10.3TFs GPU so which generational upgrade in graphics you will have from 8.4TFs to 10.3TFs if you maintain 60fps? Even taking in mind the improvements in hardware performance you will be still in very much the same range of graphic look.

So comparing graphics from PS4 Pro in 30fps to PS5 in 60fps won't indeed give that WOW generational factor.
The things will be better comparing PS4 Pro in 60fps to PS5 in 60fps but you even take these game as graphic looker in last generation? So most 60fps games on PS5 will indeed look just better without that WOW factor than TLOU 30fps for example (because it is a looker in last generation it will be used as comparison and not the 60fps games).

Now when you focus in 30fps vs 30fps... you will indeed start to see the WOW generational factor in graphics... because the difference of over 2x TFs will be showed in your screen.

That is my view why to impress you will have to go with 30fps.
Everything you say is true.

I would like devs this gen to focus on 60fps even if that means the graphics don't jump as much.

At least until the PS5 Pro and then maintain 60fps on the pro with a bump in graphics and 30fps on ps5.

Then ps6 60fps will have been the standard so we can continue that but with a big jump in graphics.
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
Night time looks sick.

AmwmXhx.gif


There is no fake lighting in either day time or night time. During day time, the entire world is lit only by the sun. No fake lighting. During night time, its only office builds and street lamps.

They also left a lot of CPU headroom available because they wanted this to be a realistic target for devs who would need to implement game logic and other cpu related tasks in a real game. this also explains why this is only on consoles. they did not want to shoot for PC specs. though im a 3080 should easily run this at 1440p 60 fps since its 2x more powerful than the ps5 in standard rasterization. it might even hit 1800p 60 fps because they seem to be using hardware RT which has less of a performance cost on nvidia GPUs.


The team had a CPU, Graphics and performance budget when making the Experience. For example, when the CG characters are on white, there is no background and so that “allowed me to use more Ray-traced area lights,” Pete recalls. “Whereas when we got into the car, we had to budget for the complex background, so I had to use less lights.” When the project first came together it only ran at 15 fps but as things were optimized the frame rate rapidly shot up. “But when we started everything was way over budget, we used a lot of 4K textures, a lot of geometry, Lumen, – which had a cost of its own, a new shadow maps technique for the sunlight – originally we were basically pushing the limits of everything.” The final experience however is indicative of what is possible for a game, running on a PS5 or XBox Series X/S there is still a lot of CPU headroom that would allow a game designer to run the normal mechanics of a game. The team did not want to build a demo that was unrealistic for what a new AAA game would be able to achieve.
 
Played it again for a little while tonight and while it still looks impressive, I was bummed out to see screen tearing. How hard is it to force vsync? Why do we still have this adaptive sync crap?

I used to play on PC and I had every game vsynced and it didn’t matter if my frame rate dropped, it still held vsync with a little bit of stutter. It also didn’t seem to make the input lag any worse when frames dropped.
 

Kagero

Member
Probably mentioned already but go to all the marked locations on the map. There are plaques that have info on them. The city is pretty big, I’m sure there are a bunch of Easter eggs all over this demo. It’s is the matrix after all.
Also, I think the game is impressive but it still feels very much like a game to me. I wish there was more randomized animations in the main characters walk and in the way her clothes animate. The city still looks a bit scripted and dead but that could be due to the world of the matrix itself. The lighting and car physics and deformation is amazing. Lack of physics and over all and lack of movable objects keep this from breaking that uncanny valley.
 

Lethal01

Member
How much more performant is GI now vs last year?
The detail here and reflections are simply better than something like Spiderman, and that's a very competent developer in insomniac. I don't see how something that looks this much better will just be less taxing or less expensive any time soon. I'm assuming simply by looking at the performance of this demo, which is bad. I understand optimization is a thing, but if they're spending all that time on assets and to show off their engine, why just ignore performance when they knew it would be subject to testing? My bet is they didn't know how to save performance on this pretty bare-bones demo.

There is a thing known as time.
I'm sure Insomniacs next game will look far better due to engine improvements since they will have years to find ways to timprove it. Same thing applies to Unreal Engine 5.

It's not like Unreal is gonna come out and they are done with it, they will be improving it for years. You can always go through unreal patchnotes and see them constantly talking about getting old feature to be 10% faster etc.

I don't have a number for how much GI has improved. I may have heard it but I've heard way too much stuff on UE5 to keep track of it all.
 
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What's the first UE5 title on the horizon that does not have a "cartoony" artstyle ala fortnight? Is it STALKER 2? Im really really ready to leave behind UE4.
 
What's the first UE5 title on the horizon that does not have a "cartoony" artstyle ala fortnight? Is it STALKER 2? Im really really ready to leave behind UE4.
Stalker 2, which is also the first UE5 game after Fortnite.
This Matrix demo proved Stalker 2's trailers and screenshots are possible on the consoles.
 

Msamy

Member
That's the true power of new consules in realistic graphics I really don't like those shitty cross gen stuff , (expect hfw and even this don't have it's true potential)
 

Mossybrew

Member
Nice. Draw distance, a lot of cars and peds onscreen at once, get close and textures still look good, fantastic lighting. Promising for devs who put this to bespoke use.
 
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sinnergy

Member
No, thats a picture i just took. didnt even go into photomode which is why you see the speedometer.
This is what some have been saying for the past 10 years , make it blu-ray resolution and up the graphical fidelity ..

But it was a road to 4K - 8k - 12k

But how can it be the Avatar destroys everything on a 1080p blu-ray.
 
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BadBurger

Is 'That Pure Potato'
I tried it out on my PS5. It looks really impressive in action.

Speaking of UE5, another spooky animation done with it:

 

sinnergy

Member
This and Hellblade 2 makes everything that was showed cross-gen the last couple of days ,look really last-gen.. reminds me of when I got Forza and a couple of weeks later they showed Forza 2 and PGR on the X360..

It was hard to play Forza ..
 

Fredrik

Member
This was the first time I've gone back to 30fps since I got my PS5 last year. It feels like shit and I hope we don't go back to it ever again.

30fps is not next gen.

That being said I can see how this tech would be useful in the film industry
I think it’s alright when you walk around in the city, when things move slowly. Problem is when the speed picks up, it starts to stutter and become blurry. Walking sims should look awesome with this engine, RPGs, cinematic adventures without much action.
My key takeaway is that it’ll push PC gaming forward and mid gen console upgrades is a must.
 

Romulus

Member
There is a thing known as time.
I'm sure Insomniacs next game will look far better due to engine improvements since they will have years to find ways to timprove it. Same thing applies to Unreal Engine 5.

It's not like Unreal is gonna come out and they are done with it, they will be improving it for years. You can always go through unreal patchnotes and see them constantly talking about getting old feature to be 10% faster etc.

I don't have a number for how much GI has improved. I may have heard it but I've heard way too much stuff on UE5 to keep track of it all.


Your whole point was based around how much GI had improved in one year, now you have no idea. Time, right? Well try giving us a time because we should expect big improvements in several years, but we're already a year into the generation.

I've taken time into consideration I assure you, I just don't see how we'll see anything like this running at a stable 30fps with actual bullets flying everywhere and explosions, mission structure, and more advanced AI. There are a ton of layers to add to this bare-bones demo that is already struggling. All that's considering engine optimizations. PC? Sure, maybe even "Pro" consoles but these consoles now just don't have much grunt at all in 2021. They'll do some nice things for sure with tricks and reconstruction etc.
 
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It’s impressive but jerky as hell on PS5 where I tried it. Also the film grain hides the really poor IQ, lots of shimmering, blur, noise and other general upscaling or RT artifacts.

This engine is perhaps not going to look as impressive in stuff that isn’t going for photo real as the low internal resolution will leave you with poor IQ that you can’t paper over with film grain.
 

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman


So finally we can experience a real beauty - one of the very first Unreal Engine 5 powered title released for consoles. The Matrix Awakens offers us a brief look on hoe the next-gen graphics might look on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S. But how does it stack in comparison to the cult original released back in 1999? Let's check it out! For purpose of this comparison I used gameplay footage of The Matrix Awakens captured on PS5 and short clips of the original scenes frm The Matrix movie (Directed by The Wachowskis and produced by Warned Bros.) Is this photorealistic already? Enjoy!
 
Is the start where Keanu is talking cgi or fmv I genuinely couldn’t tell?
Old Keanu in a grey t-shirt is fmv. Then when Morpheus appears they switch him to a CGI Keanu in the same grey shirt. Then they look into a mirror and it's old Keanu in a suit, it is fmv again.

They switch back and forth a few times to keep you guessing. But it's pretty easy to tell
 
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Falc67

Member
everything is realtime except for two scenes that are pre-rendered because the data they needed for the shots was too big and wouldve increased the file size.

There is no CG, no FMV. EVERYTHING is realtime. I will try to find the quote.

Edit: D dyergram found it.

The video is all rendered in real-time with the exception of two shots, that were pre-rendered. When Neo and Trinity multiply each other, and one wide shot of the city. This was just because the data was so vast, there would have been a short time to load the assets, which would have broken the pacing of the experience. Other than those shots, the experience renders in real-time on a standard console.

When Old Keanu first talks, that’s real, not CGI And when he first speaks in the mirror that’s also real, not CGI. The rest I believe is all real-time or cgi.
 

Elios83

Member
Night time looks sick.

AmwmXhx.gif


There is no fake lighting in either day time or night time. During day time, the entire world is lit only by the sun. No fake lighting. During night time, its only office builds and streets.

Wait how do you turn on night time in city exploration mode?
I saw the option just for a few seconds in the engine features panoramic but I can't find the setting in the menus afterwards.
 
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DenchDeckard

Moderated wildly
Gonna test the ps5 version now. Xbox was dropping framerate while at high speed in the driving sections. Sounds like the ps5 could be better.
 
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