Epic Games has revealed the first look at its next-generation Unreal Engine, version 5.0 and it is stunning. With reactive, path-traced global illumination, an improved physics engine, support for far greater triangle density and miniscule sizes, super and virtual texturing, and much more, it's the best looking tech demo we've ever seen. Better yet, it runs in real time on the PS5 already.
Another aspect that's exciting is the speed with which the player character is able to move through the level. This is presumably enabled by the PS5's new high-speed SSD. Now that games will soon be optimized for SSD technology, we may soon be able to experience this sort of fast-paced gameplay on other platforms too.
A word of caution, however. Tech demos are rarely an example of what launch games will look like, so we don't expect anything quite like this to appear on the earliest releases on the PS5, Xbox Series X, or on the PC around the end of 2020. But it does show what the engine is capable of long term, so in the years to come, our games could well look like this.
Color us excited.