Topic: First Glimpse Into the Next Generation?

With GDC going on, Epic Games, along with a few other studios showcased a new technique to capture human faces. All of it runs in Unreal Engine in real time. Looks impressive!

Here's the behind the scenes: link, and here's the same clip but on a different (fantasy monster) face: link.

There's also a video on real time ray tracing, or DirectX Raytracing depending on who you ask. Seems like a few companies worked on this; including Microsoft and Epic Games:

Here's a blog on it: link. It's an interesting read.

I wonder how much of this will be viable for actual video games on the PS5 (or Xbox [insert number]).

Cool stuff! This is still the Unreal 4 engine, right? If so, then I'm sure it'll be implemented in games THIS generation!

Personally, I'd rather see games hit 60 FPS before trying to do anything else (coming from a mostly PC background, the low framerate of many console games is by far the biggest turn-off). There's a lot to be said about seeing something move silky smooth, as opposed to a hyper-realistic slideshow.

Even if you consider the specs of a potential PS5, it seems like developers always find a way to make games run like crap (see: this generation, which I thought would be the one to FINALLY have 1080p, 60 FPS as a standard). I say...no more!!

@smelly_jr @KratosMD 1080p will probably be a baseline next gen. I'm more worried about the frame rate though.

Made me laugh when some were expecting 4k 60fps as standard this gen lol

As far as hardware goes - it'll just be a power bump again. Sony and MS will likely now stick to as near PC architecture as they can in order to leverage existing GPU technology.

As far as software goes - the uptake of 4K/HDR displays hasn't been enormous, but more a 'natural' upgrade as most people have cause to replace their TVs and such. I think the software target as AAA studios go will still be in the region of 1080p/60, 4K and enhanced load handling.

I really wouldn't expect any particularly mind-blowing leaps in experiences though.

@Octane I love watching Tech demo's and seeing what could be possible in the future. All of this could well be 'possible' on current gen let alone on next gen BUT with the caveat that they are 'scaled' back. Whether that's resolution or just a few visual settings, the point is that these engines are built for Devs to create their games with and how 'close' to these actual results are still dependent on the Hardware that run them.

Chances are that the Next gen consoles will target 4k and as such, any settings that are 'expensive' (by expensive, I mean in terms of time to process as the game needs to run at an adequate frame rate), will be either scaled down or even removed. That could mean that games on current gen may not have the Polygon count, draw distance or even high quality shadows, reflections etc.

During the PS3 era, we saw the launch of Frostbite 3 for example. That didn't stop games running on that Gen but did provide the tools for DICE to make a better looking Battlefield. All these 'tech' demo's show is what can be possible, maybe even easier for Devs to implement properties into their world and maybe even reduce the GPU workload to render these things. They are tools for devs on which they can use to realise their vision for a game but at he end of the day, the hardware they run will determine how close they get to the full vision or how much certain areas will be scaled back to fit.

Its a bit like the PC space - if you have the best Hardware, you will be able to turn the settings up to high/max, keep the resolution at 4k and still have a decent frame-rate to make the game playable. If the hardware is weaker, then you have to compromise, turn down some visual settings, reduce the resolution etc in order to keep the frame-rate at an acceptable level.

These things could all be implemented in games and still run on a current gen system but 'next' gen would/should probably get closer to the full vision the devs had...

@KALofKRYPTON 4k TV's are selling faster than HD TV's did when they launched.You also can't look at the 'global' install or even things like the US install base as an indication either as there is a very high portion of non-gamers (I don't want to say elderly for example but this group are unlikely to replace their TV until it becomes necessary) and less-affluent areas too. Amongst gamers and techies, the uptake is much higher.

The XB360 and PS3 helped drive the sale of HD TV's. Both HD consoles and the PS3 came with a Bluray player too which helped. SkyHD launched in May 2006 after the XB360 launched so it wasn't as if there was much, if any HD content for viewing. Point is though, that both of these consoles helped sell HD TV's and launched before there was a regular HD source for TV viewing. Both the Pro and X are helping to sell to 4k TV's and amongst the gaming population as well as the AV enthusiasts, the uptake of 4k is significantly higher than the global/national average. Its also more likely that both Sony/MS will continue to target 4k going forward.

The issue of 30fps vs 60fps is predominantly down to the limitations of the CPU in the current gen hardware. Even if you reduce the resolution by a quarter (4k down to 1080p), there is no guarantee that you can reduce the render time enough to hit the 16.66ms frame time needed to run at 60fps because the CPU is not fast or capable enough to do its work in time. The XB1X has a faster and more customised CPU yet Rise of the Tomb Raider runs perfectly at native 4k/30fps but cannot run at 1080p (a quarter of the resolution) and a solid 60fps (double the frame rate). Its not surprising really as the CPU (in both the Pro and X) was barely improved over the base models. The GPU in the Pro is around 230% more powerful yet the CPU is just 30% faster.

If Sony want to target 60fps as a 'minimum' then the CPU will need to be significantly upgraded in the PS5. It won't be the fact they are targetting 4k that will determine the frame-rate so much as the more powerful GPU should still render 4k as quick (if not quicker) than the PS4 manages to render 1080p so its more down t the CPU. I think Sony will not compromise here and not only will they have a slight edge visually over the X (due to a better GPU) but the big difference will be frame-rates.

With Game VRR, they also wouldn't be limited to just 30 or 60fps either and with HDMI 2.1, they could even offer up to 120fps too - if of course the hardware can cope with that - maybe not in the AAA games anyway...

A better one of the Andy Serkis video - showing how it can work with a different looking character