Unreal Engine 5 brings two key options which stand to radically enhance the realism of each 3D geometry and lighting. Whereas the options aren’t but totally optimized for VR, early developer experiments are displaying spectacular outcomes.
Unreal Engine 5 launched earlier this 12 months, however sadly its two new key options—Lumen for world illumination lighting and Nanite for micro-geometry—weren’t supported for VR out of the gate.
Nevertheless, Epic has been engaged on subsequent variations of of Unreal Engine 5, and although they aren’t prepared for a full launch but, preview builds of Unreal Engine 5.1 and 5.2 present that Lumen & Nanite have gained preliminary help for VR.
And whereas there’s nonetheless probably progress to be made to totally optimize the options for the extent of efficiency required by VR headsets, developer have begun experimenting with Lumen & Nanite in VR and the outcomes are already fairly placing.
One such instance comes from Twitter customers Hiroyan which dropped themselves right into a cave filled with richly detailed objects and a flashlight to mild up the house.
The Epic gods have carried out it once more… Lumen and Nanite in #UnrealEngine #VirtualReality utilizing #UE5-main (5.2). That is by far probably the most element and realism I’ve ever seen in #VR. pic.twitter.com/KE9aYboJTE
— Hiroyan (@H1R0Y4N) October 9, 2022
Whereas many Lumen demos have centered on displaying loopy glowing balls and extremely reflective surfaces (as a transparent instance of what Lumen truly does), it’s truly this rather more refined use of the applied sciences that—to me, anyway—appears to be like probably the most convincing from a realism standpoint.
The factor that basically makes this scene stand out is the interaction between the extremely detailed geometry and the lighting. VR actually advantages from extra detailed geometry not solely as a result of the stereoscopic view makes it readily obvious when small geometric particulars are literally faked (utilizing tips like regular mapping), but additionally as a result of it’s a lot simpler and extra frequent to get actually shut to things while you’re taking part in in VR. Not solely are you able to choose stuff up and maintain it proper as much as your face, you’ll be able to lean your head infinitely near any floor.
Due to Nanite—which basically features like a steady LOD system that attracts element from the unique ‘grasp’ 3D mannequin—the tiny floor particulars on the rocks and wooden actually stand out, particularly as a result of they’re actual when it comes to stereoscopic depth.
And due to that, the Lumen lighting system correctly catches all of these small floor particulars and shines on them in a really convincing method that additionally subtly lights up the remainder of the scene with out pushing reflections to unrealistic ranges merely for demonstration functions.
“It’s onerous to convey by way of screenshots, but it surely’s really wonderful while you’re capable of get tremendous shut as much as objects and so they have micro element you’ll be able to see with your individual eyes,” writes Hiroyan.
Whereas it will likely be superior when this degree of element is feasible on a fundamental VR prepared PC, that may not occur for a while. Hiroyan says this demonstration was operating on Nvidia’s RTX 3090, one of many highest-end GPUs the corporate makes.