Epic Games has established itself as an important fixture in the gaming world. With a deeply entrenched revenue stream from Fortnite, Epic has been able to undertake ambitious ventures like the Epic Games Store and the acquisition of Artstation.
Of course, even before Fortnite became a runaway phenomenon, Epic held sway over one of the most important pieces of modern game property: the Unreal Engine. Designed to help anyone from AAA developers to indie creators make games, the Unreal Engine is a modern staple of video game design. Constantly updated with new features and versions, it is now stepping into the next console generation with Unreal Engine 5.
While the full engine is not yet complete, Unreal Engine 5 now has an Early Access version available. The Early Access comes with a number of significant features for crafting games and the full release is slated for early 2022. While compatible with previous generation consoles and multiple PCs, some of the newest features can only properly function on next-gen consoles and Windows. Epic itself is already putting the Engine to use, as multiple Gears of War games are already planned to utilize Unreal Engine 5, hopefully to its fullest potential.
The two major features that are exclusive to next-gen consoles and Windows are called Nanite and Lumen. Nanite is a graphics feature, allowing incredibly detailed environs to be placed in-engine, supposedly lowering polygon count to grant greater detail. According to the site, source art can be imported and placed multiple times this way, although there is no mention of creating original assets yet. In the same vein, Lumen promises to revolutionize digital, real-time global lighting in games, allowing more realistic lighting. It's attention to detail like this that has always made Unreal Engine popular, especially for fan remakes like Shadowman.
That said, the focus of this iteration of the Unreal Engine is not on creating smaller projects, at least according to Epic. The engine's website declares that Unreal Engine 5 is geared towards creating open-world games, whether AAA or indie. If this is indeed the focus, there may be fewer television show recreations this time around.
Whether a focus on open-world creation over other kinds of projects will help or hurt anyone who purchases Unreal Engine 5 Early Access remains to be seen. Those who wish to see a demonstration of the engine's capabilities can download a sample project: Valley of the Ancient. Be warned, Valley has much heftier spec requirements than something like the fan remake of Pepsiman created in Unreal.
Source: Unreal Engine