Epic Games Denies Hiding Loading Times in the Unreal Engine 5 Demo
Epic Games made waves this last week as the development studio released footage of its brand new Unreal Engine 5 running on PS5. While the new engine boasts some of the best graphics available in gaming, with unlimited polygons and photorealistic settings, some eagle-eyed viewers believe that they may have spotted some limitations in the engine.
The suspected limitation comes from a gaming trope that has become a common tool for hiding loading times by requiring players to slip through a tight space, something that the PS5 promises to remove as games move onto Next-Gen technology. One section in the Unreal Engine 5 demo has some fans convinced that this is what they are seeing in a scene that pulls the camera in to watch the main character shuffle through a small opening.
According to Epic Games, this section is not meant to be one of those moments that hides load times, but instead was included to give a detailed look at both the details of the wall as well as the animation of the character's hands pressing against the wall. This ties in with a claim from Epic Games' CEO Tim Sweeney, who has previously declared that loading screens are "a thing of the past." With such an emphasis on reducing load times, it's no wonder that Sweeney backs PS5's capabilities and the promise that loading on the Next-Gen system will be one-hundred times faster than modern consoles.
One reason that this confusion about the Unreal Engine 5 demo may come from the way that it has been advertised as a playable sample of gameplay, implying that this has been created to be played. Looking at the demo instead as an extended cutscene intended to show off the capabilities of the engine, it wouldn't really make sense to show this type of load disguising. So giving players a close look at the more intricate details that the engine is able to load in real time would be a quality use of the short time the trailer has.
With Next-Gen consoles looking to eliminate load times in future games, the opportunities to bring the camera in close the way that the demo does may be going away. This could be true for all games launched in the coming generation, including cross console titles, as Unreal Engine 5 should run on Xbox Series X as well as the PS5 that the demo was showcased on. Its likely that the backwards compatibility boasted by both systems will also bring these speedy load times to modern games as well.
Source: GamesIndustry.biz
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