Epic Says This Is What Next-Gen Should Look Like

Epic Games isn't just showing off the latest improvements to the Unreal Engine 3 at GDC 2011. They're showing us what the next-generation of games should look like. Do the images hold up to the hype?

[Kran]

Yeah. As soon as you put the disc into your 360/PS3/PC....

Boom. ;P

Thats how powerful such engines seem to be now.

[CrazyForGames]

i can't wait to see how many devs go under next gen

[AAACE5]

Holy sh..! I'm glad we are starting to see the types of games I bought these consoles for! First the Battlefield 3 vids. And now we are seeing tech demos like this. I don't think something like this would be possible with the current consoles, but if it happens and they turn it into a game... F*ck it... I'm all in!

[limewax]

I wouldnt get your hopes up, even if they got it running with all this tech on consoles, there would hardly be any game there. This tech seems VERY demanding, Beyond anything available today, hence its a tech demo.

I think we will get some of these features in the next gen but not all of them, just like we were promised 1080p 120fps standard and got 720p 30fps standard

[PLASTICA-MAN]

Where can we watch the demonstration? The screenshots look almost next-gen, the video will make us :D !

[BlackKnight]

@AAACE5

These tech demos are DX11. Xbox/PS3 have only DX9. This is for current PC's and whenever future consoles come out.

[ABizzel1]

So these are what next gen cutscenes will looks like, with the actually game being slightly toned down. Looks like they've finally reached the level I've been waiting for.

But if you want to see next gen graphics look no further than this.

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

[ProjectVulcan]

PC will run this in realtime, this year. When the summer comes around and the 28nm generation of GPUs hit, this will be possible in realtime in a game if someone builds it.

Expect the fastest GPU by the end of this year to have at least 3x the performance of a GTX580.

Already a GTX580 is roughly 8-10 times as fast as the console GPUs. The next level will arrive this year with a long overdue 28nm node.

Remember this comment when you read reviews of the next gen 28nm dual GPU cards, because they will be running Crysis with everything on at very high resolutions 100+ frames a second no sweat.

If you want an idea of how fast a modern GPU is, GTX590 would very likely be capable of rendering the original Toy Story in HD, realtime i.e the length of the movie to watch, something which took over 100 workstations 46 days in the mid nineties....

[Pixelated_Army]

Those screens look a little dark/muddy/dull/grey and where's the color Trying to hide something Epic?

The same criticism that was thrown at KZ2 should be directed towards ME3. I guarantee that this game will look nothing like what you see in the screens and will not surpass KZ3 in terms of graphics or gameplay.

[nycredude]

Balckknight

/facepalm

Pretty sure Ps3 don't run Direct x period.

[Dee_91]

I would cry like a baby if a future GTA have these type of graphics
http://betacache.gawkerasse...

[KaBaW]

These picture shown are to depict what we may see next generation..
And, you say this 'game,' that would be Next Gen, won't look better than KZ3.

Man are you delusional..

[Ghoul]

"PS3 have only DX9" completly wrong.

ps3 has opengl and therefore is way more flexible BUT also way more intensive and difficult to code for.

to make it easy

DX = predefnied effects pipelines etc. nice and handy to use fast results but limited to its features
OpenGL= pretty much open for anything but every effect has to made from ground up to work, longer production time but more flexible

Opengl is the main reason why the ps3 crushes the 360 in the exclusiv section, time over time they evolve they opengl definitions share it via the companys intern studios and start maxing out the systems capability and optimising the hell out of it

[BlackKnight]

@Ghoul

See below, OpenGL is a standard, OpenGL wont magically make the RSX be able to do things it can't physically do.

@nycredude

You should be facepalming.

DX3D is a standard, a spec, meaning to be a DX9 video card, the card must have certain features and abilities. This is similar to OpenGL. The RSX in the PS3 is a geforce 7 series nvidia GPU, a DX9 capable GPU. It is also an OpenGL 2.0 compliant card.

DX9≈OpenGL 2.0
DX10≈OpenGL 3.0
DX11≈OpenGL 4.0

The PS3 uses a slightly different OpenGL than PC though. It uses OpenGL|ES (OpenGL for Embedded Systems) 2.0. Roughly the same as OpenGL 2.0.

So when one says the PS3 is DX9, it is true, it is what the card is capable of but uses OpenGL ES 2.0 instead which is extremely similar.

Here, let me help you:

[Spydiggity]

can't tell you how sick i am of hearing ps3 fanboys cry about killzone. lemme tell you. i bought kz3 (first game i bought for console this year) and it looks like crap. and it plays like crap. please stop comparing games to it. it's one of the worst games i've played this generation (no balance, no imagination, no color, no nothing). and if you wanna talk about their post processed cut scenes, please die.

[hay]

Looks great but as tech demonstration(points to FF7 PS3 tech demo, which graphical awesomeness we're still to witness in-game), it's far from reality.

Personally when seventh generation was coming I always thought that this gen will be about volume and quality. Huge, dynamic worlds, lots of gameplay. 25Gigs of space whispered that. Instead it was filled with uncompressed audio, video, higher res textures, better models and animations.

But volume and quality-wise, today games are nothing compared to oldies.
Next-gens are bullsh!t.

[chak_]

"Expect the fastest GPU by the end of this year to have at least 3x the performance of a GTX580. "

Uh?

No, just no.

[Masterchef2007]

"These tech demos are DX11. Xbox/PS3 have only DX9. This is for current PC's and whenever future consoles come out."

So Sonys console is using a GFXs tech by Microsoft? You sir are wrong since the PS3 doesnt use DX instead it uses OPENGL

http://www.opengl.org/news/...

Just thought you might want to know :)

Edit: K i read one of your comments and i understood why you made that statement. I apologize for what i have said.

[ProjectVulcan]

Yes chak, yes.

GTX590 and 6990 will be AT LEAST 1.5 times as fast as GTX580, actually probably closer to but a little shy of 2x the theoretical performance because of thermal and power constraints. These will be here within a few weeks, still on 40nm of course.

28nm will typically bring a top end single GPU also AT LEAST 1.5 times faster than GTX580, but again, probably slighter faster than even that conservative estimate. Two of those will likely go onto one board for the fastest cards, a dual GPU board in Q4 2011......

Moore's law dictates this. GTX580 is technically only about 15 percent faster than GTX480 which was a fresh generation, launched a year ago now. 28nm will allow again at least 1.5 greater transistor density but if you look into this better, because 32nm was scrapped, the leap from 40nm to 28nm is larger than the leap from the old 55nm node to 40nm.

In short, 28nm could provide a 6 billion transistor GPU, which would be a smaller jump than we saw with GTX280 to GTX 480. So i am also being conservative here.

[pixelsword]

Epic has the best bullshots in the biz; in-game, however, cuffs and collar don't always match.

[sikbeta]

PC has "Next-gens"? I know it sound stupid, but PCs are totally upgradeable and more powerful stuff comes out every time, I remember when I bought a G-force 9600gt and like one week later the 9800gt started to roll out, lol I felt so dumb XP

[ProjectVulcan]

Well 'next gen' in the case i referred to was with generations of Graphics processors/process technology.

When a new, more advanced smaller process technology arrives then you usually see another large step in GPU performance. The lines are not entirely distinct, but generally as a new process arrives, you see a considerable leap in performance from the fastest single GPU cards. Halfway between these distinct generations, you usually see a 'refresh' of models, slightly faster but not a big leap.

The consoles were really built between the 110 and 90nm generations. Since then we have had the fully fledged 90/80nm gen (8800, radeon 2900) then the 65/55nm generation (GTX280, Radeon 4870) now we are well into the 40nm generation (GTX480/5870). In that space of time we have gone from the console GPUs with around 300 million transistors, to GTX580, with 3 billion!!

Each provided a large leap. This summer, we are due the next process node, 28nm. You will then see new products from AMD and nvidia, considerably faster than the 'refresh' models GTX580 and Radeon 6970.

The industry entirely relies on shrinking manufacturing process size to advance performance significantly. Increasing transistor density is the main way to improve performance.

[AAACE5]

There's this thing called paying attention to what's actually being said!

To everyone who disagreed with me and commented against me, read my comment again... better yet, i'll point out what you missed.

1. "And now we are seeing tech demos like this."

2. "I don't think something like this would be possible with the current consoles..."

[paintsville]

This engine will make the "superior" UE3 engined games in development for 360 even better. PS3 already struggles with the advanced demands of the cutting edge UE3 engine so I don't expect it to go well with the Sony camp. Maybe this will motivate them to make a better console next time.

[KillerBBs]

Lag and Low frame rates.

[BloodyNapkin]

@paintsville

My god where to start with you...i am really speachless to your comment. I am having a hard time trying to figure out if people are really this retarded of if you are being sarcastic...

[Maddens Raiders]

hmm... no offense Epic, but Guerrilla, Polyphony Digital, and the Naughty Gods have already shown us. You should pay attention to them.

[IcarusOne]

No offense, Maddens, but this looks better than the CG movies of any PS3 exclusive. PS3 has shown us what THIS gen can be. These shots are beyond current consoles.

[Downtown boogey]

Are you saying Epic doesn't know their stuff when it comes to computer graphics?

[palaeomerus]

Maddens Raiders goes for the burn and....HE FAILS!!

FAAAIIIIIIILLLLLLL!

[snipes101]

Knew you were a worthless fanboy right after you said Naughty Gods.

[gaden_malak]

eH dluoc eb cixelsyd

[RatherHavaBigGirl]

just when i thought fanboys couldnt get any worse, another breaks the record

[evilmonkey501]

@IcarusOne
You know these "CGI's" are in game and NOT CUTSCENES on the PS3...right?

[SonyPS360]

These screenshots look better than anything those developer's you listed have shown.

You should learn to pay attention to what's right infront of you.

[mp1289]

@IcarusOne Computer Graphics are like movies when ported to a console, its just a matter of disc space.
I thought God of War 3 had CGs up to the point were i noticed i was controlling Kratos. Yeah they look that good.

[kewlkat007]

Come on Madden...REALLY?

HA!

[Lich120]

"Computer Graphics are like movies when ported to a console, its just a matter of disc space."

Does that sentence make sense to anyone? I literally can't tell what it means.

[TheBatman_Fanatic]

Evilmonkey got a lot of disagrees, 360 fans are here lol

[WetN00dle69]

@Ts-shio
Run to the hills your world is ending!
Cause up to this point everywhere i looked was nothing but PS3 fanboys!

Anyways that looked amazing and highly doubtful these current gen systems will be able to handle it.I could be mistaken but we will see.

[Spydiggity]

no, no they don't. you have no idea what your'e talking about maddens raiders, you're just a fanboy.

[bluegreenman]

gears 3 honestly looks better than uncharted 2 and this is coming from a guy that loves his uncharted.. but Gears 3 is better. Uncharted 3 will have to one up epic again though.

[Belasco]

I really want to say something nasty after reading your post, but you could'nt possibly be serious, right? Right?

[hoops]

The Fail is strong with this one

[BloodyNapkin]

Well Madden didnt understand it, but it means on PC not on consoles.

Cause we have seen exactly what Epic can do compared to those guys you did say on consoles, it pales in comparison to GG,PD and ND.

[downwardspiral]

the face looks like plastic.

[gypsygib]

It still has that horrible plastic look that the current Unreal engine has. Look at the clothes, it looks like a plastic coat.

I was more impressed with Battlefield 3.

[vsr]

Frostbite 2 & Cryengine 3 & ID tech 5 >>>>>>>&g t;>>>>>>>& gt;>>>>>>> >> UE 3

[MNicholas]

Looks like high res version of lost planet where everythin has the same ugly shine.

I expect next gen to look a heck of a lot better than that.

[lil Titan]

im sick of unreal engine even though have to admit does look nice

[Kakkoii]

Seems most people aren't aware that the CryEngine 3 already has ALL of these features, and much more. And Crysis 2 uses ALL of them.

Hell, even the CryEngine 2 had most of these freaking features!!

""CryENGINE®2 provides seamless support for both indoor and outdoor environments on DirectX9 and 10, as well as support for next generation consoles such as the Xbox360 and PS3.

Feature List

Real Time Lighting and Dynamic Soft Shadows
Volumetric, Layer and View Distance Fogging
Terrain 2.5D Ambient Occlusion Maps
Normal Maps and Parallax Occlusion Maps
Screen Space Ambient Occlusion
Subsurface Scattering
Eye Adaptation & High Dynamic Range (HDR) Lighting
Motion Blur & Depth of Field
Light Beams & Shafts
High Quality 3D Ocean Technology
Advanced Shader Technology
Terrain LOD Management Feature""

@BlackKnight: These features aren't restricted to DX11, only the tessellation is. All of the other features can be done in DX9, and have already been done in DX9 by Crytek with their new CryEngine 3. It has all these features, even the subsurface scattering.

[gypsygib]

Epic needs to work on getting rid of that 'look', I'm so sick of the plastic/clay/action figure plastic look. I really hope a new engine (Rage, Crysis, Frostbite 2) takes prominence

The clothes look sooo bad, what it that 3 inch thick leather?

[BlackKnight]

@Kakkoii

Talk about a straw man argument. I said that consoles do not support DX11 or the DX11 features shown in the demo.

I did not say anything in that big list of features you put.

Not only that you do realize that, for example:

Motion Blur & Depth of Field

There are MANY ways to do MB and DOF and at varying quality. The point of the DX11 demo is it is done in such a quality and precise and method that can not be done on console. Same with reflections or many kinds of other effects. I agree some is already done (at lower quality) in DX9, I never said it wasn't done.

I was specifically talking about DX11. You could say that I also said "this demo cant be done on consoles" and then tell me "but consoles use polygons and MSAA too!".

[ChrisW]

Sure it's "Next-Gen" for consoles, but it's also "PC-Now!"

[karl]

im more than sure that a current pc can play those graphics

but my question is... is it cheap? to put soo much detail into a gamE?

im sure that making a model for even a rock with that much quality would take a lot of time...

im just saying that this sure isnt cheap or fast and it would take a lot more time to produce.. it gives me the feeling that many devs wont like the idea of super high datailed games...

to cover the expenses by selling a few millions would be even harder ..

i guess im just saying this was possible from a while ago but just wasn't productive

[BloodyNapkin]

Of course it isnt cheap. And the major problem is, "THERE ISNT ANY F#$KING GAMES TO PLAY ON THE PC". Why in the h3ll would i want to spend money on a gaming PC and have to upgrade every year or 2 to stay current on crappy games. Sorry i will pass, thats worse then people paying to play online.

[fatstarr]

cryengine meet your big brother

[Kran]

I find it odd why people disagreed. All I was implying is that next gen is extremely powerful that i wonder if the current gen consoles could cope

[FanboyPunisher]

Or

You buy a PC today and it has more power to render something like that.

Buy SLI/Tri down the road and Photorealism is very possible (many benchmarks, and such things have been accomplished a few generations back (But no developers are pushed the limits like that yet.)

I wish PC gaming stayed as the main platform, you know why? We all benifit from constant advanced in technology and not segmented like consoles have turned out industry into 5+year cycles now.

[BloodyNapkin]

I am glad PC gaming is not the main platform, cause then we wouldnt have any good games to play.

[DeadlyFire]

This is Unreal Engine 4.0 preview. Anyone that thinks this is UE3 is seriously messed up in the head. For the ones that don't know they plan on releasing UE 4.0 in 2012 or around it. Another hint of next generation consoles.

One hint to give you an idea that this is UE 4.0. Notice every bit of the images says Powered by Unreal Engine Technology. Not a 3 anywhere.

This will not hit X360 or PS3. Far to powerful. A milder version might be okay for them, but will not be able to experience graphics like this.

Can't wait to get the video.

[frostypants]

I know those screens are probably just from a show-off for the new engine, but dammit...MAKE THAT GAME! I love dark urban settings.

[FinalSpartan]

wow thats huge improvement.

[Blaze929]

I hope next gen won't be all unreal engine all over again for every game. That was the case for the first 3-4 years this gen and it's still going on. Let's see some games start using the CryEngine3 or something.

[2fk]

have you seen BF3??? maybe not.

[Shaman]

Its all in artists hands now though...This UE3 in DX11 has some serious tech under hood :)

[SMOK3xFFx]

This looks better then Frostbite imo.

That wireframe is unreal.

[Shaman]

DX11 tessellation feature looks fantastic :)

http://betacache.gawkerasse...

[CaptainMarvelQ8]

unreal....ENGINE
FTW!

[Vermillion]

And this is still Unreal Engine 3. It almost looks like a whole different engine from the first Unreal Engine 3 now lol.

Anyway, great job Epic. Now could you make it into the UDK too? :P

[milohighclub]

SMOK3xFFx
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahah
battlefield 3 is near photorealistic
this is no where near!!!!!
think before you type, fool.

[gravemaker]

looks cool, but tech demos for ue3.5 looks cool too...nobody can run them lol :) Can't wait for next gen

[kookie]

The next gen is when the round objects in game are fully round.instead of this polygon shit

[Trroy]

You could argue that anything "round" is usually merely composed of bazillions of molecules that have a non-round shape.

In other words, they're effectively tiny subshapes (you could think of them as polygons). There's no such thing as "round", in the real world, either.

Back to your comment, why would you want something that wasn't actually realistic again? You realize that ray-tracing is done against shapes that have to be mathematically defined (like polygons, for example), and regarding the few shapes that can't be defined with 100% accuracy by polygons -- those shapes are pure mathematical constructs, and not realistic at all (like spheres, or other perfectly "round" or "curved" things).

[ULTIMATE_REVENGE]

Basic science, everything in nature is curved or fully round.

How you failed at basics is beyond me.

[LightofDarkness]

Uhhh.... what? And why are people disagreeing with Ultimate Revenge?

That's pretty basic physics there, guy. Almost everything in the universe will form into a spherical or round shape. All matter that enters into space will warp the space around it (much the same as displacement). This is also the basis for our understanding of gravity. You can read all of this in Einstein's Theory of General Relativity.

[Trroy]

...you guys are pushin' it, with regards to calling atomic and subatomic particles being "round" at all.

I think you should stop paying so much attention to your tinker-toy concepts of how you think things are, and start paying attention to what I'm saying. Computer graphics are a representation of how we *see* things. Think about how light reflects off these objects. Light does not magically bounce around as though it were reflected off things in a magical pinball machine comprised of perfect spheres.

Read up on some modern quantum physics, gentlemen, if you want to argue the meaningless details. My statement is correct, at *every* level.

There IS NO "round", and its certainly pointless to try and simulate it, with regards to computer graphics.

[palaeomerus]

Perfect geometry NEVER occurs at the macro scale in nature. Sorry man. That triangle you drew is NOT really a triangle. It's only triangular. Zoom in on a circular phenomenon and it's highly irregular. Zoom in on a steel razor's edge and it looks jagged and pitted. What you see is not what you get when you see better.

[Shadow Flare]

Being a bit anal aren't we?

All the guy asked for was for circular objects in games to not have angular edges to them. I don't think he gives a rat shit what shape a molecule is, geez

[Ducky]

"That's pretty basic physics there, guy."

Hi, I'm a Physicisit. Never heard of any basics about everything being spherical or round since the 17th century.
As for computer graphics, I guess they can aggressively subsurf everything.

Anyways, the images depressed me. Just darker and grittier... why can't we have colours? =(
Manic depression will likely kick in if we're all still playing 6v6 TDM on maps smaller than football fields.

[aGameDeveloper]

Note that, since a monitor has square(ish) pixels, you could never display a perfect circle, even if it were represented as one in code. The closest output device for such a thing is probably a vector display, but, then again, the phosphors are randomly distributed on the surface and thus unable to describe a perfect circle.

[likedamaster]

"Manic depression will likely kick in if we're all still playing 6v6 TDM on maps smaller than football fields."

That is definitely a dig at Crysis 2.

[lastdual]

Technically, id did "smoothed curves" back with Quake 3 Arena. The tech has been there for a while, but unfortunately is seldom used.

[LightofDarkness]

Big difference, those hard edges were smoothed out when the map was compiling and really only applied to map geometry.

Accurate curvature on non-static meshes is much more taxing as the number of vertices is larger while their positions change relative to each other, unlike static meshes. This is why tessellation has become such a hot topic for the next generation.

On topic: I'm actually gob-smacked at how much of an evolution this is when current techniques are considered. This finally looks beyond Crysis in every conceivable way, and even superior (however slightly) to Frostbite 2.0.

SOOOOO glad I just bought a GTX 580 :)

[Kakkoii]

@LoD:

Ughhh. Crysis had all these features, the point light and sign reflection are the only ones I'm unsure of. And of course DX11 tessellation since DX11 wasn't out during the time of CryEngine 2's production. And Crysis 2 for sure uses ALL of these features, including many more amazing features, the most notable being real-time dynamic global-illumination.

[SonyPS360]

Lol. Do you know anything about 3D modelling?

[B1663r]

Back in the day rather than have primitives that were made out of polygons, we made our models out of quadratic equations, then put those into a ray tracer, and our spheres were spherical to the precision of the computer we were rendering it on.

Now get off my lawn!

[Tyre]

really round looking objects use NURBS...and that technique has been in 3D rendering software since the early nineties...the thing is all those techniques already existed for more than 20 years...it is only now that computers and software programs/engines are fast enough to render it in real-time, so it can be used in games like the NURBS rendering.

[darthawesome90]

Yeah round objects and how about grass that looks like GRASS. I'm sick of seeing games with a plain green solid field and crab-grass spaced out every 2 feet. I want a field of grass and hair that looks like hair and not the plasticy stuff I see when I play Mass Effect or other high end games.

It's sad when the hair and grass hasn't improved much in 5-6 years.

[Belasco]

You made the simplest yet the most reasonable request without posting a huge list of techno-nonsense like most here.

[Firstkn1ghT]

Damn after seeing BF3 and now this? I'm ready for next gen.

[Shaman]

Yap.Me to.The best thing about it is that it would can look even better on next gen consoles and newer PCs couple years from now.

I think I'm ready for next gen.E3 2012 would be nice :)

@below

The thing with Epic is that they are ALWAYS first in next gen.UE3 was done by 2004 and its still here,always updated and developers still use it.Guys like Crytek and now Dice wait for couple years into gen to show of but they are kinda always first,with best tools and graphics but when couple years pass they get surpassed by others but they always get huge share of market because of the fact that they are always first on market when next gen starts.That happened with UE2 and now with UE3.Don't know why all the hate...they are really talented bunch,they have been making engines since early 90s.

EDIT.

MS and Sony,whatever they say,already started to work on next gen consoles.Last gen Sony started working on PS3 in 2000 and MS right when original XBOX was released.
Graphics with this and new BF3 just look too good for this consoles to stick around more,its over.Give us next gen.Imagine Final Fantasy done right with next gen graphics?Or new GTA?Or Mass Effect?It would feel like you are there man...

[Istanbull]

next gen isn't starting in 2012. The new xbox will probably come out in 2013 and the PS4 in 2014. The current gun is only at mid point.

[duplissi]

when compared to other generations the current gen is actually near its end... 5 years has been the average.. the ps3 is 4 years old and the 360 is five years old..

edit: well not so much near its end (looks at ps2..) but that the successors are near.

[Pandamobile]

This generation has hit its peak in a big way.

The sooner new consoles hit the market, the better.

[evilmonkey501]

I don't think were gonna see any new consoles for at least 2 more years, save Nintendo.We usually hear about these things by now if that was the case...

[StbI990]

LOL, this guy is so optimistic...if games are expensive now, how would they be next gen?...yeah right

[DeadlyFire]

Wait until E3 2011 is over before you say its not starting in 2012.

[Raider69]

It wont be long Epic works close to M$,and for some reason i get the feeling that M$ has already disclosure the aprox specs for the next gen hardware for the new xbox!And this signs from Epic only make me believe more on it!

[limewax]

dream on man, I would like to agree but I just cant, You really think MS will pile it up with the very top of the range tech?

Think of the pricetag....It has to be a balance between progression and affordability. If we get this in consoles then they wont be planning the processor yet, by the time they release the xbox it would be useless research. It all depends on what parts cost what when it enters the mass manufacturing stage. Which is a long way away lol

[WhiteNoise]

Epic have always pushed graphics. Despite what PS3 fan...s say.

Back in the day the original Unreal Tournament blew everything else away. Gears on 360 was the first game to show this gen of console graphics. UT3 still looks amazing to this day and Bulletstorm although DX9 only looks mind blowing.

http://img843.imageshack.us...

I think Epic will bring out UT4 at the start of the next generation to kick start things, it would be pretty EPIC ( pun intended ) to be the first to have a DX11 console game.

[Etseix]

ur right, and wrong, even when Gears was the first game to really caught the attention of the public by using "next gen graphics", Epic does not -always- push graphics, htey do, frmo one gen to anotehr one, but on the same gen, they dont really do a giant step ahead :/
cheers :)

[INehalemEXI]

Same story repeated , the last unreal engine was pimped out just like UE3 is now. They push , then someone else comes and ups the game.

[SonyPS360]

You mean epic ups the game, then someone else ups the game?

Well it's Epic's turn now, so they're about to "push" the graphics once again.

[INehalemEXI]

Rage gona knock it out the park prolly and Crysis 2 prolly got the PC side of the FPS locked for a minuite.

[specialguest]

I trust that Epic will deliver on what they've shown as "next gen". I still remember the first time I saw the Gears of War 2005 E3 trailer, and how impressed I was with the graphics.

[INehalemEXI]

I heard that , I'm just talking as rage looking good as it is first game on the new engine right...?then Doom 4 or something that is going to be crazy.

[Kakkoii]

Is that you Dasch?

Also, CryEngine 2 did most of this stuff, including the subsurface scattering. And CryEngine 3 does all of this plus much more. So this honestly isn't amazing me. Crytek beat them to the punch and already is about to release a game with all these features enabled on the PS3, 360 and PC.

[GamerSciz]

While these are impressive. This is next-gen...

http://images.gamersyde.com...

[Raider69]

BF3 graphics are impressive too on PC!Because dont expected consoles this generation to look like that!But if look close it still lacks AA on does graphics,just like the latest BFBC games!It coud be frostbite engine 2.0 releated?!Of course one cant compare the BF3 images to the ones from Epic new UE tech because the art style is very different!

[CrazyOrange]

lol at

ق د ن ف!!

first they wrote it from left to right rather than right to left!

second its not connected

third its suppose to be like this فندق

[Raven_Nomad]

I remember seeing renders of what this generation should look like, even back in 2005 we saw "CGI" graphics of what games were going to look like, we still haven't seen that.

I know I'm not in a hurry for a new console, to be honest...new consoles lack games for the first year or so, then it takes companies years after that to tap into what the consoles truly have to offer, then when people are finally taking advantage of these consoles...new ones come out....

I'll stick with what we have for the foreseeable future.

[IcarusOne]

Remember that CG KZ2 trailer? Yeah...still waiting....

[HeavenlySnipes]

There are a dozen games better looking than that trailer. KZ3 is also one of them. Heck even KZ2 looks better than the trailer.

[StarScream4Ever]

As long as UR engine doesn't churn out plastic like characters and popup renderings then I'll play it.

[Raider69]

Indeed!That first batch of pictures look to plastic and dont represent the true shape and color of human skin!Maybe is the tone!Never the less the tech is impressive!

[drzmvp554]

Imagine a next-gen Gears of War using this technology. Eyegasm.

[theonlylolking]

At first it will seem impressive then over time just like U3 it will look outdated.

[specialguest]

An eyegasm...

Yes literally an eyegasm:
http://www.youtube.com/watc...

[GoldPS3]

I bet KZ4 and Uncharted 4 would look 10x better if they be on PS4. This looks very impressive though.

[Kon]

One man can dream

[diehardgamer1000]

one can troll

[cochise313]

This looks good, but I was expecting a larger graphical leap. Devs can't keep up with the high costs of this gen, so I know they're not ready for next gen just yet.

[TronEOL]

I don't know, those graphics look amazing. Not to mention those are "newborn nextgen" graphics. So they'll only improve from there.

[cochise313]

Yeah you're right, but I don't think devs will make the most of it. Companies like square complained about making HD town in ff13. I don't think devs are ready even though gamers might be.

[ULTIMATE_REVENGE]

Does anyone remember that UE3 tech demo during E3 2005 that showed that guy getting chased by a robot? yeah that looks like crap now. Now it looks really bad in terms of textures and a whole load of other things.

This tech demo could end up looking the same once games actually start using this tech. It looks good now but it'll be beaten and you won't even notice it.

[IcarusOne]

Yes and no. It's true we'll always get used to something eventually, but this looks like a real, theatrical CG movie. When I go back and rewatch the Final Fantasy movie (Spirits Within) from 2000, it still looks great. Advent Children still looks amazing. Monsters Inc still looks impressive. Finding Nemo still looks awesome.

I think we're approaching a point where the real graphical benchmark games will have a much longer shelf-life. Hell, Shadow of the Colossus looks dated but it's so vividly imagined that I still get chills when I play it today.

What's awesome about graphics getting to this point is that eventually (and hopefully) we'll all stop giving a shit about which game looks the best and start focusing on what's really important: how they play.

[killalot100]

IcarusOne you are so awesome my head hurts

[Otheros00]

I say next gen should look like FFvsXIII cgi.

[Trevonn]

final fantasy versus xiii cgi is better imo

[Kon]

This isnt CGI!!! For the love of God!

[Trevonn]

@kon never said it FRIKKING WAS I WAS JUST SHARING MY OPINION ABOUT WHAT Otheros00 said besides he said next gen should look like ffxiii's cgi i just gave imo a better example thats called adding to the discussion now bug off

[Otheros00]

I said Final Fantasy Versus XIII not FFXIII.
FFvsXIII does not equal FFXIII. FFvsXIII is Final Fantasy Versus XIII. Can't you see the Vs?

[Tuxedo_Mask]

I think when FFvsXIII comes out it will impress a lot of people. I like how the new Unreal engine is looking too though, I just hope it works well on all of the new systems. Knowing how developers are these days almost everyone is going to use the same engine and it'll probably be this one.

Games are starting to look a lot closer to reality and I think this is taking it just far enough to where it looks excellent but isn't creepily real. I'd like to see how far other developers can take new technology in the future and SE might be another developer who wows us again beyond even FFvsXIII.

[prettyboy1]

impressive but id rather see an actual game running this engine before im truly impressed

[SuperbVillain]

The next gen is going to be sick in terms of grpahics

[blackbirdi]

well the character model terms of quality looks in the same level of nathan drake on ps3 in i don't think it's really next gen i think it's more High-end PC....the textures quality is simillar to UNCHarted 3 ...i'm talking about the smoking-man not the enviroment.... i think the heavy rain model face textures are in the same level like this demo too ....it's big step comparing the GEARS of war 3 but some PS3 titles had some stuf at the same level

[xtremegamerage]

Nobody is saying everything is round, but ask yourselve why a soap bubble is round. I'll let you think on that.

ON topic.

Looks awesome.

Madden, i love the tech in UC2,GOW3,KZ3.

Looks amazing.

Imo nobody has touched ND in alot of area's, i love their shit. BF3 looks amazing, but i don't think the faces do. Most games facial tech does not look alive. You can pump as many polys as you want into it, It's fking art.

As for this tech demo, looks like CG in alot of area's.

DX11 and onwards.

But as people have said, i want to see it running in realtime. I'm sure we will soon enough.

[acemonkey]

that looks good Next Gen, But the system will be like 600dollors or more

[Hassassin]

more like $1600, to get all the features.

[Kakkoii]

Nope. You could build a PC for under $650 that could run all these features at higher than 1080p with some anti-aliasing and fairly higher texture and object quality.

So with the subsidized cost of consoles and their mass production, it would be fairly cheap.

[Bob570]

Chances are pretty good they will be $400 just like the 360 was, and the Xbox was before that. The PS3 dropped to $400 dollars within a few months after it's release.

[Hassassin]

by only looking at the photos I say... Hell Yea!! make this happen next year and you'll have a real next-gen game.
Also:
if a game like this doesn't happen soon we'll be condemned to reach this quality progressively [meaning it will take years and by then we won't even notice the slight upgrade... which would suck]

[Kakkoii]

It's already happened this year, with Crysis 2. Pick it up in a few weeks for either the 360, PS3 or PC. It has all these features and much more enabled on the consoles. (Except for DX11 tessellation on the consoles of course, since their GPU's don't support it.)

[Hassassin]

It has all the features... but that it look as good? At least the dx9 version does not... I'll wait for the dx11 version though. Right now Battlefield 3 is looking much better.

[barb_wire]

Static screenshots are nice and all..

but let's see this thing in motion - wonder how many FPS we're talking here?

[nightmarex121]

Looks good, but i knew it won't be like a super big jump leap compare the past generations.

[turgore]

BAtman Arkham Asylum 2 allready looks like that except the nifty bokeh effects. YAWN. Epic ur engine is outdates. Frostbite and Cryengine 2 will eat it for breakfast.

[Merivigian]

So what, less than a week and it's "outdated"?

[Trevonn]

*cry enigine 3

[maxcer]

smh at all the armchair developers on N4G.

these shots look amazing, no way around it. just face it, our current consoles are old tech and if you want this kind of fidelity your going to have to upgrade your console in a year or two... so much for a ten year cycle when you have jumps in visuals like this.

[The_Nameless_One]

Is it just me or did those screens reminded you of Blade Runner? Ohh well, if you're gonna copy might as well copy from the best. Now if only Epic could match their story telling capabilities to their graphical capabilities...

[Bob570]

That's hardly next gen. People already have computers that could run that with relative ease.

I'd only be ok with that for next gen if consoles are running it at 60 FPS and the environments are Battlefield size.

[Xander756]

I'm really hopeful the next generation of consoles will be announced soon. These images look great!

[iliimaster]

next gen should look like god of war 3 and uncharted 2 ! no exceptions and those games have been out for a longggg time already

[zackacloud]

PS4 must be better than that

I want PS4 be better than that

[FantasyStar]

It'll never come to that unless you're willing to pay the same price as a top of the line PC. But then why would you settle for a console when a PC is more robust in features, backwards compatibility and multiple ways to play?

[zackacloud]

I want RPG , Action , Racing , FPS , TPS , Action RPG .etc

To be more clear I want MGS , FF , KH , GT , Uncharted , KillZone , WKC and infamous

Also want HD collections of PS2 games

That will not happen to PC

PC games available on consoles and other games MMO

Just tell me why PC not have PS3 or Xbox 360 Emulators if PC too way strong

( I know PC powerful than any consoles )

[Hozi89]

wait when they say "next gen" they are talking about xbox 360 and ps3 right? or do they mean ps4 and xbox 720? cuz honestly I think ps4 and 720 should look much better than that.

I do think it's possible to maybe pull that off with ps3 though.

[Pandamobile]

You're insane if you think the PS3 or 360 can produce graphics like this in real-time.

This is the sort of stuff you'll see in the next gen consoles, and present day PCs. The cycle is beginning again.

[Hozi89]

Well whether PS3 can or can't produce graphical quality like this I'm not arguing about that. All I'm saying is that it's not that big of a leap over current gen games. (MGS4, Uncharted 2, Killzone 3)

I do hope next gen is better than those screenshots.

[Pandamobile]

Next gen won't be as big of an improvement over the last.

Real-time graphics tech is starting to plateau a fair bit. There's only so much more we can do before the only thing better is ray-tracing; and for that we won't really have the hardware to do that in a meaningful way for a while.

You also have to look a lot deeper at these screenshots to really see why they're so important.

Modern games, even games like U2 or KZ3 use very simplistic lighting and shadowing calculations compared to what we see here. Shadowed point lights is a big thing. Tessellation is a major push. Better sub-surface scattering. MSAA in a deferred renderer. etc.

All of this stuff will become fairly standard in next gen games, and all of it is already possible/being done in some PC games.

[B1663r]

Both xbox and ps3 are perfectly capable of graphics like that, just the game will run at 2 fps or some such...

[Pandamobile]

Some of the things in this demo aren't even feasible in console APIs.

MSAA in a deferred shader? Nope.
Tessalation? Nope.

"Both xbox and ps3 are perfectly capable of graphics like that, just the game will run at 2 fps or some such... "

Yea, and that's why we need a new generation.

[MightyMatt101]

They're referring to the next wave of hardware not current. We are in current gen not next.

[Xi]

that's not what next gen should look like, that's what current PC's should look like.

All those effects, the compute shader techniques giving us the dof, blur and subsurface scattering, the tessellation on models, all that stuff is possible on PC's developers really need to start making the best of it.

We saw what crytek did with dx10/10.1, well, dx11 is here, why aren't developers using it.

[FantasyStar]

Why do devs need to work hard when casual gamers are already satisfied with their pickings? If you reward devs to push the limits, we'll see more devs try and strike for innovation. We reward stagnation: we get sequels and CoD.

That being, I plan to get The Witcher 2. The tech for that game looks absolutely insane. The guys at 4A Games would be proud that there's a game other than Metro 2033 that can make PCs bleed.

[PS360PCROCKS]

right? I just built my PC and was very underwhelmed with dirt 2, mafia 2 and so on. Only the tech demos and Metro 2033 looked amazing.

[tawak]

Epic Says This Is What Next-Gen Should Look Like.....uncharted
baammmm!

[Ingram]

Mah, the only next gen feature there are the lighting, resolution and post processing, same old uncanny valley zombie problem, and a discrete polygon count.UE is not so hot, i'd bet on id tech 5 and 6 being better in the 8th generation of consoles.

[MightyMatt101]

I hope new consoles come sooner rather than later. I know a lot of people will complain but it's not like you have to go out and buy it right away. We all know sony will continue to support the PS3 long after PS4 has launched. Microsoft not so much nintendo not so much either..........

[lochdoun]

Wow, Crytek and Epic are really pushing the envelope with their tech demos recently.
Problem is, most other developers engines haven't caught up yet, thus they are in no rush for a new generation of consoles.

[codename13]

meh .... same old gears of type environment as usual

[PS360PCROCKS]

lol at the console fans thinking this will be done on a console. This is PC graphics kids, move along, price of admission is $1000+

[midgard227]

aaaand dev times are already bad enough, it just started picking up and to increase graphics that much more would be suicide financially. sure it wud be hella pretty tho

[Vesemir]

If it live up to the hype? Depends on who you ask.
But it sure does look good, I'll give you that.

Only possible on a PC though. I have been waiting years for PC gaming to come back on full power. Guess I won't have to wait too long.

[Three_Sisters]

for me, nex gen in-game graphics should be perfectly as good as cg

[Sarobi]

well thats very impressive looking, although i cannot imagine what next gen games will look like, if they will all look like this then wow

[FrigidDARKNESS]

Im willing to bet MS worked very closely with Epic on this Engine like they did with the previous engines for Gears.
This isn't a bad thing it
s a good thing because this will gaurantee that the next xbox SDK would be easy for devs. to use the Epic engine without hiccups.

[CharlesDCI]

Hope you guys get next gen jobs to afford the machines you will need to play games that look like that in real-time.

[Blasphemy]

Am I the only one not impressed by these pictures? Most people won't even notice these effects in the games and that's if they can get them to run in real time. I would expect next generation games to look like Crysis or better, if not I would be servily disappointed: or even Project Offset, that game looked amazing when it was first shown.

[therapist]

You can see what next gen looks like right now...and play it. on a badass dx11 pc with games like metro2033, crysis 2, soon witcher 2

[LoneWanderer09]

Am not ready for another wave of consoles and perfectly fine with my PS3 and i will be for the next few years

[MWH]

amazing visuals but it's going to be a while before we walk on those streets.

[KaBaW]

And people still complain.. Geez.
Here I thought them pictures looked badass..

[Boatbird]

eh i kinda doubt it

[Raendom]

It looks great, almost CGI but I won't be buying a next-gen console just for graphics like this. Their engine should show how next-gen hardware can improve AI, mulitplayer, etc.

[WitWolfy]

Here we are talking about graphics where we should actually be discussing if the hardware would be able to sustain itself when running this kind of graphics. I doubt MS would want yet another RROD scenario knocking on their door again.

So imo, let them first use engines like these on their next gen prototype consoles to see if it can actually handle the strain this time.

Id really hate buying yet another $500 console for it to turn into a brick again 7 months later due to improper testing and cheap parts to save a buck or two on production costs

[F4sterTh4nFTL]

-

[Haseo106]

Battlefield 3 trailer shows us enough. Keep it to yourself, EPIC FAIL!

[NnT3291]

@Haseo: BF3 trailer looks amazing, but If you say it looks better than these pics, you sir need to check your eyes

[Troll-without-Bridge]

Not impressed at all. All i see is dark, dark and more dark.

[zero_cool]

@BlackKnight PS3 supports & uses openGL & Linux Binary not directx lmfao!

http://cell.scei.co.jp/inde...

read through the document carefully no mention of directx at all in programming just your stupidity echoing through the post.

[Tikicobra]

I'm hoping there won't be another generation any time soon. Games and consoles are too expensive, I don't want to have to buy three new systems just so that I can get slightly improved graphics.

[femshep]

I'll bite.....there engine has been really nice they just need to add colors besides various browns and dim reds.....those screens were great...however Gears of War is just brown im sick of games being like that this gen

[buckley]

Wow. I love how every 5-10 years we get that big leap in quality dropping jaws everywhere. I'm salivating.

[GodKing1337]

BEST video cards currently & price:
1# ATI Radeon HD 9570 $800
2# Nvidia GeForce GTX 580 $500
3# Nvidia GeForce GTX 480 $400

[buckley]

Those results will be completely different by the time we have a playable game that looks like Epic's tech demo.

[Ace_1975]

PC might be capable of pulling this off this year, but there is no games using this tech, so enjoy your uber powerful PC that is still running game engines that are made to work with consoles of today. You have pretty tech demos, not much else.

[jim00zzxx]

have just played Heavy Rain again, and IMHO i think Epic will have to try better a little if you want to wow a non-fanboy.

[BX81]

This ain't shit! Let me show you what my gameboy looks like.... If I could just get rid of these lines across my screen....

[BABY-JEDI]

Epic sure can talk the talk,,, But can they walk the walk?
I dont think so..
Nice try, maybe next gen

[Ingram]

Come on, they're just using bioshock's arty direction and a very powerful PC with DX11, There's nothing revolutionary here, next generation will surpass that, for sure.

[SkyCrawler]

Looks great but not really impressed. I think my standards have been set too high ever since I saw the otoy engine.