In a new video posted online, a developer has shown off a detailed and graphically impressive recreation of a medieval town created in Unreal Engine 5. There has been a deluge of trailers using the Unreal Engine 5 lately, both for demos like this one and full games intended for release, and it’s even rumored that Halo developer 343 Industries will be using the Unreal Engine for their titles going forward.
Epic Games’ original Unreal Engine was a graphical powerhouse when it was first used to create 1998’s legendary first-person shooter Unreal, showcasing then-state-of-the-art features like colored lighting and collision detection. More and more developers began using the Unreal Engine in subsequent years, but it wasn’t until Unreal Engine 3 debuted with the release of the 2006 Xbox classic Gears of War that the Unreal Engine became the gaming juggernaut that it is today. The current version of the engine, Unreal Engine 4, powers games ranging from Street Fighter V to the racing title Assetto Corsa Competizione and is designed to run on everything from mobile phones to consoles and PCs.
Built using the latest version of the engine, Unreal Engine 5, the short video posted on YouTube by user Ayşu Aydın showcases a medieval town and is backed by suitably epic fantasy music. Aydın has previously released other videos created in Unreal Engine 5, including demos of an atmospheric cave and a tranquil mountain road. As the camera pans through the dusky medieval town created for this trailer, candles flickering in the lanterns hanging from the beams jutting out from the wooden buildings, we see a setting that looks like it would be right at home in the next Elder Scrolls game. In fact, players have already seen one creative developer show their version of what The Elder Scrolls 6 could look like in Unreal Engine 5.
The trailer from Ayşu Aydın, though short at just over 30 seconds in length, does a good job of showcasing the realistic lighting that developers can create using Unreal Engine 5’s Lumen global illumination system. This is most impressively highlighted when the camera moves through the town’s center, highlighting dust floating in a ray of light peeking out from behind a building. Other developers have chosen a more rustic setting when creating demos using the engine, with one recent jaw-dropping video showing off an ultra-realistic forest created in Unreal Engine 5.
The fact that solo developers can create incredible-looking worlds like this using Unreal Engine 5, a process that once would’ve required a team of dozens or more people, represents a huge leap forward for game development. By creating a toolset that makes crafting detailed, beautiful worlds easier for everyone from solo developers to major studios, Epic Games is hoping to maintain their dominant position in the gaming industry with Unreal Engine 5. And with gorgeous upcoming titles like Tekken 8 already running in Unreal Engine 5, gamers have plenty more eye candy to look forward to.