Video game graphics have been one of the main battlegrounds for both games and hardware producers since the industry began. The graphical jump from the 8-bit era to the 16-bit era, and then again in the evolution into 3D graphics made it clear to see the graphical improvements that were possible with new hardware and new games engines. Many developers want to make the games that have the best graphics, and game engine designers like Unity want to be the platform that makes that possible.
These graphical upgrades have been more subtle in recent years, however. Although polygon counts are still going up and the industry has a new focus on things like lighting and shadow, AAA games are at the point where they look so good it's getting difficult to notice the smaller improvements. But graphical capabilities may be about to get another major leap forward with the latest game engines from Unreal Engine and now Unity.
Unity has revealed a new real-time cinematic trailer named “Enemies” to show off the graphical capabilities of its Unity engine. The engine has experienced a multitude of upgrades for 2022. Along with technology from Unity's recent Ziva Dynamics acquisition, the upgrades include an improved high-definition render pipeline, a new adaptive lighting system, and new tools for creating realistic human faces with strand-based hair physics.
All of these upgrades are visible in the cinematic trailer, which is all rendered in-engine. The video is a demo to show off these upgrades rather than any game project currently in development, but it does exhibit a new level of graphical fidelity and how it could be applied to a number of different genres. The main attraction of the demo however is the woman and the incredibly realistic rendering of her subtle motion-captured movements. Unity could already be on the back foot however as a number of major titles are already confirmed for Unreal Engine 5, Unity's main competitor.
When the character in the demo is still, it is difficult to distinguish them from a real person. Only when they are moving can they be picked out as a real-time render. This demo is Unity’s response to the recent unveiling of Unreal Engine 5 and its playable Matrix demo with similarly realistic facial detail and lighting. As the two biggest names in third-party game engines, there is a lot of pressure on Unity to keep up with Unreal Engine 5. Most mid-budget game developers that don’t have an in-house game engine will likely choose between one of these to make their game, and the one that can produce the best looking and smoothest running project will most likely win out.
The uncanny valley is something game developers struggle with as games increasingly look better and better. This concept essentially explains why 3D renders of human faces become more unnatural looking as they approach the point of truly tricking the brain. But the latest Unreal Engine and Unity demos show that games may soon be able to reach that point of photo-realism.