This is the future of gaming and anyone can do it

[@LevelCapGaming]

Thank you to Factor for Supporting the channel! Use code LEVELCAP60 to get 60% off your first Factor box bit.ly/3CN5K8J #ad

[@Tubbs777]

bro you have kids???

[@FEWGEE1]

Unreal Engine tech demos have always looked impressive, but that raw graphical power is never replicated and carried over into actual functioning games.

[@gannonlenhart]

It’s less about the graphical quality and more about the time that can be saved by indie developers. These developers can focus on optimization more than trying to develop high graphical textures and can just optimize around the provided ones

[@deepfriedicecream576]

The difference this time around is that UE5 offers these kinds of visuals with a lower performance cost. Ray tracing lighting too expensive? Try Lumen which is capable of realistic, life like lighting with much better performance than how we’ve been using ray tracing in games today. The quality of assets can now drastically be improved because of Nanite. Again, high quality, high detail at high performance. That’s what makes these demos cool. It’s showing off the most extreme of extreme scenarios at realistically playable frame rates with seemingly less headache

[@FEWGEE1]

@@gannonlenhart I guess so, yeah.

[@darqshark3506]

It's not a tech demo, it's an asset showcase level. It's up to the individual developer how they use them.

[@T0asty-]

@@darqshark3506 tomato tomahto

[@unrealghost8]

From unreal tournament 1999 to the most amazing graphics they could’ve made loving all this they are doing

[@saphiran31]

Dayum! I loved that game!

[@sidesw1pe]

Actually before UT there was Unreal.

[@squirrelsinjacket1804]

I still remember the original Unreal game intro demo that played when you started the game being mind blowing good graphics back in the day. It seemed lightyears better than Quake 1.

[@niksatan]

@@squirrelsinjacket1804 i haven't seen it on real computer back then but watched videos of it on pc magazine cd-s

[@coapa_760]

wow i forgot about that i remember skipping 2nd and 3rd just to stay in my 1st period computer class and play with my buddies

[@TheLizardKing752]

Having lived in rural Northern California this actually gave me chills and reminded me of a childhood spent running around the woods, climbing trees and generally making mischief.

[@KikoMannSS]

Dude it totally looks like the forests here

[@JayzTwoCentzIG]

@@KikoMannSS spooked me man

[@Erik3E]

might even have been the same place you never know

[@_nightmarze4u410]

Redding?

[@TheLizardKing752]

@_ Nightmarze4u Mendocino. Not the redwoods but a lot of the underbrush and overall landscape is similar.

[@chrisemens4022]

Gaming aside I’m excited for the promise of being able to explore virtual worlds or even go for a walk in the forest long after I’m physically able to do so in real life.

[@Texas240]

Studies show that even virtual "green space" time can be beneficial for humans. I'll play games like kingdom come deliverance just to get some virtual green time when I don't feel like also "enjoying" mosquitoes, allergies, and humidity.

[@cerberus50caldawg]

With my favorite virtual dog chasing virtual squirrels! ...*SIGH* I love the future!!!

[@HerbertFilby]

Kingdom Come Deliverance is obviously an RPG game, but it basically carried me through all of 2020 during the lockdowns because you can just wander the game forests and there are no monsters or wolves trying to constantly kill you. It was serene.

[@MrStoffzor]

​@@HerbertFilby frickin cumans everywhere!

[@Aet1en]

I work as an environment artist for a tiny team. These assets are extremely useful to us for quickly creating environments, but as you mentioned, often arent viable to run at real time alongside the rest of the game. For the moment, these sort of assets are relegated to our pre-rendered work only.

[@why12983476why]

Not with Unreal 5.1 which brings Nanite to vegetation.

[@Aet1en]

@@why12983476why Biggest hit to vegetation at the moment is shadows. Nanite helps with this a bit but still has a huge performance hit.

[@tevarinvagabond1192]

@@why12983476why Lol, I love you "Unreal bros" that are simply gamers with no programming knowledge at all that try to act like UE5 makes everything better in gaming. You can't just cookie cutter things in, oftentimes the game mechanics you want to put in a game render UE5 way too much of a headache to use and you won't be able to get the same amount of fidelity as these tech demos because they're too big of a performance hit

[@daanoffline5716]

@@tevarinvagabond1192 5.1 will help though. I am not what you describe as an unreal bro, and have some actual experience. Shadows are still a problem which without any doubt will be one the things epic games is working on.

[@themikeyexperience]

@Aetien, I want to research careers where I can do environmental artistry but I don't even know where to start looking. Any advice? I wish I understood which jobs required Mechanical Engineers using this tech

[@asdqwezxcasdqwezxc12]

Unreal has always been good at allowing a small team to pump out something very pretty: But pretty backdrop does not a game make. We’ve seen “amazing next gen demo built in unreal” for the past 15 years. And it never changed the fact that games and their development require custom work flows around specific goals and features and that almost never aligns with what these unreal tech demos are trying to achieve.

[@clamum9648]

Wow, that forest looks about as photo real of a game asset as I've ever seen. It's really fricking good looking. As a software developer myself, who's learning some game dev in my spare time, these sort of assets are huge. I have ZERO artistic and creative abilities, so any graphics, from simple UI bubbles to entire forest biomes, have to come from: an asset store, or me paying someone to make it. Since I'm not rich, these sorts of assets are critical for me to do about anything. I actually may try to do some photogrammetry myself. I think there's free mobile apps now that'll do it (though you need to clean up the resulting object, which I should be able to do I think).

[@Fireblats]

The issue with these is literally that they are HUGE. File size, I mean. These small areas you see in these videos are often over 50 gb. The UE tech demo is 100GB in size and it is a VERY small area. You simply cannot recreate this for a large game.

[@mikecapson1845]

I watch those guys, since i do Architectural Visualizations, this was no brainer for me. But i bought only one of them since the price is quite high for me as a single freelancer.

[@Jgvcfguy]

Photogrammetry assets have become a standard tool by now, especially for organic stuff like rocks, trees, and ground cover which is where the technique really shines. Most games that have a realistic art style since like 2015 use them.

[@nazaxprime]

To Quixel or not to Quixel, that is the question.

[@dustypixelsUE5]

@@nazaxprime I find blending the two work very well

[@daftpunk672]

shoot there were mods for Skyrim that used photogrammetry before that if I remember correctly.

[@nazaxprime]

@@daftpunk672 yeah, 100%

[@AHHHHHHHH21]

Nice, makes me exited for the future. Imagine a vr game with this tech

[@T0asty-]

The Forest was like this. A bit more rudimentary, but it was just like this. All vr too

[@daanoffline5716]

I saw a video a little while ago with this exact premise, photoreal vr gameplay. It worked though there wasn't a lot of assets in that world so it might be a little deceptive.

[@nazaxprime]

My buddy and I were a land surveying team for a few years. I moved, he got into real estate. He picked up a 360° lidar scanner for scanning properties for his business. $3k to point cloud just about anything and import as Quixel scans... It's actually silly I'm not running my own shop on the store.

[@p1zzaman]

Ah yes UE, the go to engine to build up a tech demo to market your game and having final product either canceled or not looking like the trailer at all, anyone can do it 😂

[@cuerex8580]

the vanishing of ethan carter did it right

[@EduardoSilva-fj2xf]

@@cuerex8580 That game isn't a game, it's a masterpiece, so it doesn't count.

[@Cusey]

Do you have a single example of this happening

[@jeffofbread]

Actual indie dev here: These packs are super useful. I do code, not models (at least not terribly well) so things like this and megascans (built in library of photoscanned assets in UE). I personally own this groups Broadleaf and Conifer forest packs, for free! They were in a free monthly pack Epic does. Not a dime spent on what is now over $300 USD in assets!

[@nazaxprime]

I love the monthly freebies... Only problem I have is I'm a trucker and miss a ton of high quality expensive assets. I've been around a bit though and have accumulated a small library, so thats cool, to say nothing of the matrix map. If you haven't seen the huge Colorado map, I'd suggest looking it up, it's pretty amazing.

[@nazaxprime]

Oh yeah, and 2 minute papers here on KZbin if you haven't looked him up. What a time to be alive!

[@jeffofbread]

@@nazaxprime What a time to be alive indeed! I've followed him for a few years now haha

[@MAWIUnited]

Thanks for a great video, enjoyed watching it and you definitely got all the aspects of the new tech right. :)

[@lifson22]

I just want dayz built with these assets. The density of these forest scenes are perfrct for a slow burn hardcore survival game like dayz imo. Hunting for food, hiding from players, building a little shelter up in the trees. Thats the game I want to play.

[@rHino122295]

It would be great. But you would need nothing short of a supercomputer and the best optimization experts in the entire industry to pull something like that off

[@Phyto.]

was thinking the exact same thing, this + DayZ would be a wild experience

[@kamranbegakafr3ak]

as someone learning unreal 5 having this optimised and actually making this is hard probably not for seasoned dev but even with nanite(which actually perform worse for my quixel foilage compared to current lods system) you cant have tons of high poly meshes and highres textures simply because it takes space and takes time to load

[@Loui_Siana]

I knew it was a on the rails video in like 3 sec.

[@limitlessfactor]

The forest walkthrough makes me think of the game with the same name. It also makes think of STALKER. This could also be a cool VR experience. Imagine they map a area with trails and camp grounds so people could experience the great outdoors. I can just about imagine how awesome this would be to have people walking through the woods and happen upon Mount Rushmore, Aztec pyramids or maybe Coves dels Hams (underwater cave). Your creativity is the only limitation.

[@WigganNuG]

Here's an idea: PCVR title for realistic Sniper Team vs Sniper Team over a large 5milex 5mile map. Maybe multiple teams of Sniper v Sniper v Sniper ... The level of detail, ability to camouflage and relative slow movement of play would fit well. (the goal would be to track and "hunt" one another using real world training techniques and get the kill from a distance). Could also be a really cool Hunting game in VR over large areas of terrain.

[@thatguy7085]

The branches moving as you pushed through the woods would have been a cool effect

[@cgnovice2969]

Tarkov is already using Quixel assets at scale. For some reason they want with unity though

[@olivermiller2013]

I saw a game which is in development from one person: Spaceburn 2. I saw a video on KZbin, it is far away to be perfect, but this is something that nobody was able to do as a 1 man show in the past. He is buying such assets for the game and using them. It is a space game with a lot of planets and it is still beta. What I expect? I looked some months ago a tutorial video and someone who is able to program can do huge things with this engine. And the possibility to buy much more content, get it individual in the game with plenty of buildings, plants, animals and everything else is tremendous. I expect that games in 2 - 3 years even from small studios or talented programers are not comparable to what we see today. And I expect, when we are talking about big studios, that we get open worlds as big and detailed, that no one can play through mayor parts. Gameplay will change forever.

[@dino8895]

This channel is basically a relic from the good old days

[@ffmichael1764]

Star Citizen should use this for the surface of their planets

[@Volhybo1t]

yeah Star Citizen is awesome

[@KhulX]

@5:35 beg to differ, that's a Dune map right there haha. Even planets in Stargate would be easy to create with these biomes.

[@imqqmi]

I think generative AI could bring even more options for small teams, especially customizing these kinds of assets. Imagine inputting a description of what you want and the AI generates the assets for you. The cost will be computing power and you need a good imagination and word it correctly to get what you want. Creating sci fi worlds this way should be relatively straightforward.

[@intensevideogame]

when it comes to video games, the levels should never be any asset pack. It is so obvious when the level is just some asset and most likely just won't fit the rest of the game. really, if your solo or with a small team, and want to finish your game, you probably shouldn't be aiming for photo realism anyway. but I'm just some guy writing a youtube comment. my opinion doesn't really matter.

[@thezombiekillerh1666]

Imagine playing a horror game with this...

[@leopoldwhylie5076]

Add the level of audio immersion needed and we have gold

[@Charlie-cq3qb]

sons of the forest mate coming out next month

[@ThorbisTheDwarfNecromancer]

Man. a Lords of the Rings game where they photo'd the actual sets/locations they used from the movies would be kinda sick

[@LiquidZero_]

The fidelity while moving looks impressive. The lack of any movement when not moving breaks the immersion. Seriously. While walking, the micro movements and swayed motion look normal, as if from a tall fpv. But the lack of these micro movements while not walking, or looking around kinda breaks that immersion. I'm sure that is editable. This still is amazing, nonetheless.

[@Kraeuterbutter]

this needs a VR version... in VR it looks natural because you have this natural head-movements anyway

[@KillerBearsaw]

Photogramarty, nanite, DLSS/FSR, upscaling. All these things are going to provide a massive bump to the possibilities for creating high fidelity real time graphics. Can't wait

[@theFirstAidKit]

Asset backs are nice, they can really make a difference for an indie game developer. However, assets like these are only a small part of a games development. You also need to program the all the systems, make UI, sound effects, music, create/configure AI, create characters, animations, level design, marketing, publishing etc. There's a ton of different things you need to do to make a game that looks nice, feels nice and is actually fun to play. You can supliment some of the work with some asset packs from the UE store or something, but that's often just a small part of the game.

[@FeatheredDino]

I remember the upgrade from UE3 to UE4, and was mind blown. And make no mistake, the best of UE4 is still absolutely stunning, but WOW UE5 is mind-blowing.

[@skeptikus]

4:34 did I just see the death star? on a different note: Is the lighting taken from the original capture? Can you have it change over time?

[@Nickknows00]

A game with this level of detail would be like 1 terabyte storage space

[@C-o-r-y]

I can visualize running from days gone fast zombies and escaping into some old cabin with 500 zombies killing you 90% of the time where u barely escape, maybe some parkour and mountain climbing and a jeep, eventually after a month running from house to house you find a weapon and can now touch the ground without getting violently torn apart by the hordes

[@Sempaishere]

There's no parkouring away from days gone zombies

[@cauereis2064]

the problem is that we have tons of "games" not finished with horrible animations and no history at all but good looking grhapics used to sell a lot of early access scams

[@ArtofWEZ]

I think this might be good for studios doing next wave of simulator games. Leaving the fun 3d to the 3d artists. Free Coding assets are getting better to for those who are artists wanting to make games. There is very intensive code kits for almost every genre in the Unreal marketplace.

[@Jsfilmz]

awesome mawi map one of my faves

[@DemolitionRepublic]

Looks super neat!

[@coina-dig-tion6322]

would love to see a video that shows how a person could use this to build a game. what are the steps it would take?

[@richardorford8301]

Was that the Death Star? Or did I imagine it

[@racecarsinc]

You beat me to it, was going to say the same thing! Especially since it's "redwood forest" which is where they filmed return of the jedi in California!

[@nelsondw]

while i feel like nanite is an incredible advancement in the industry, if you use nanite on every single piece of foliage for an entire game your game files are probably gonna sky rocket in size, it's not really ideal for a large scale (open world) type game to use nanite on that scale, small scale maps or instanced based games could for sure utilize this to its full potential though

[@hurdyu4146]

You actually gain performance with nanite on so it’s more beneficial to use it

[@akonoka3356]

Imagine "the Hunger Games" with this kind of quality... would be insane

[@Fastlan3]

So A.I. like Midjourney will be further developed to make it very easy for indie developers to make alternative or alien asset packs, allowing for alterations that will distinguish their style and look from the basic asset packs in the store.

[@andreasschneider1966]

The only thing that gives away it is not a video is the way the camera moves - add some shaking due to walking, and a smoother rotation of viewpoint. Done.

[@rdtheskald]

DAYZ in UE5 with nanite and lumen. Take my money

[@Phyto.]

This ^

[@shakaama]

song at 2:00 ?

[@reckless8404]

Yeah, but the thing is that its very expensive on the hardware the more code it has to render, and the more functions in a game, the more expensive it gets. The visual is 1 thing, but the brainwireframe behind it is the giant code. As of instance running a script raycasting lets say 5 items at the same time, can make you loose performance

[@thornescapes7707]

I'm just picturing these scanning companies building up a bunch of drones to scan things. Unleash the drones, scan Chernobyl or where ever, then compile the results. They'd be able to do it far more efficiently than anyone else because they are specialized and they are building a library. Sounds utterly brilliant.

[@aarondunn6759]

I like the idea of creating a world simulator that includes towns and cities and has people or monsters that create events for a pen and paper table adventure. When an event happens the simulator can be paused the event is played out on and then the game can continue.

[@chriskeach1908]

Or a company comes up with an prompt driven AI that generates environmental assets, upload a few screen captures from a movie or AI generated art and it does all the work generating the assets, do a midjourney 4 render window, yup option 2 is where we want to go now expand that to a 100x100km area and so on...?

[@oskarwallin8715]

the "sad" thing is that i immediately identified it as the MAWI pack. it looks amazing though

[@ArmadaWixxi]

It takes a lot more for a game to be fun than just a few assets from the marketplace mashed together. That is the exact thing going wrong with today's indie scene. Lame people making ultra lame "games" with a few marketplace assets. The thing is that gamers are becoming more and more aware of this and asset flips are getting better recognized by gamers. Asset flips are the bane of the game development industry. Put time, effort and love into your games and people will like playing it. Give them a UNIQUE experience. Use what you want (store assets, AI, ..) whatever, but don't forget the most important ingredient: your own work and ideas!!!!! Only you can add something unique that players won't find anywhere else.

[@Quake1983]

did anyone else see the deathstar @4:35? That is the moon of Endor underneath the deathstar around the time of Return of The Jedi. Awesome easter egg.

[@EMB3D]

fps view truly brings out the awesome detail

[@845SiM]

And the day this tech actually makes it into a playable game for the masses i will be interested.

[@popcorn4465]

Anyone else thinking this is what dayz 2 would look like 🤤🤤

[@Phyto.]

We can only dream

[@TheBeardsShow]

The sci-fi point you made isn't quite right. You can use alot of these tools to make alien worlds. The megascans library which btw are free some of those were actually used in Starwars. You can also change the colours of assets make them more red for example to get a mars type effect. There is also a planets pack so you can put them in the sky. It's pretty easy to make sci-fi scenarios.

[@MrGreeeeen]

Even though I think this is an amazing idea/technology and am super excited to see where it leads. One thing I would not like to see happen is noticing the same assets being used in different games that have nothing to do with each other. for example if you played enough unreal based games then it is likely that you would see some of the same assets used, and it might take away from any immersion or world building that area could have potentially had in that game, hope this makes sense.

[@ForScienceSC]

Maybe photograph the inside of your own house? Then make a zombie game where you have to survive inside your own house and keep the windows boarded up etc. That kind of sounds neat

[@badzilla1173]

Now I just need a 4090 to play it without the pc going critical on me.

[@MFobes]

If they put it in a real video game not just a tech demo I believe your cpu would still melt down along with that 4090 😅

[@SuperToughnut]

Are these asset packs static or can they be randomized with a push of the button. It might take a while to generate but at least developers that use the asset pack wouldn't be using the same forest.

[@bobmcbobbob2391]

Crysis is weeping some where..."I used to be someone!"

[@maarten176]

Photogrammetry always saves on the budget it’s a huge time saver

[@illus1ve]

These asset packs have been a thing for some time, but Unreal Engine makes it even more accessible and usable. But we have to remember that "photo realistic" graphics aren't always a pro. It ties down every other graphical aspect of the game for the elements to not stick out. Photo realistic can quickly become a 'boring' aestethic as well - if that's all that's going on. If we compare it to more traditional art, such as painting. Realism came before impressionism, expressionism and abstract art. But it will make some things way easier.

[@Derjyn]

EFT does in fact use Megascans. Just not well, or rather, the best quality levels of photogrammetry assets.

[@AlexanderWeixelbaumer]

Imagine this technology simply as a vacation simulator: Wanna watch the pyramids in Gizeh? Just go. A virtual trip through the British museum? Buy a ticket and go. Or time travel to a prehistoric location with dinosaurs or whatever? Sign me up!

[@nathan43082]

One of them problems with these games is that the foliage is way too vivid green. This likely comes from the fact that the textures came from shooting plants with studio lighting. In the real world, foliage has much more of a blue cast to it from the blue of the sky, making everything blue-green. They are also much darker than this. Games never get it right.

[@Gildur01]

Nanite is exciting and I'm convinced this will be the standard in all engines and games in the future. But since it requires a specific minimum hardware to run effectively, we'll probably have to wait a few years for it to be established as standard.

[@benmcreynolds8581]

With our level of capabilities I wish we focused more on Fun game physics effects rather than focusing so much on "best graphics, ray tracing, etc." I love anything with fun gameplay mechanics and creativity.

[@freddyrock]

That forest looks incredibly realistic. But the water gave it away.

[@Qxthb]

Battle field used photo realistic assets I think it was the first one (not sure which one it is) so that fact that that games is pretty old I expect games will improve ten fold within 5 years

[@cerberus50caldawg]

04:34 Probably didn't notice that Death Star up there looking down on you??? Made me start thinking the Ewoks were lurking about someplace as well.

[@chrisyungstrom468]

Great to see the tech potential. I’m excited to see how this can be applied in vr.

[@JayzTwoCentzIG]

This is too real. It actually made me sick and gave me chills within the first few seconds.

[@showlottathings]

Get well soon.

[@moody_goose]

The future of video games is expanding beautifully.

[@YelmurcW]

Epic games owns quixel, it’s free megascan assets for your game if you use unreal engine.

[@sumdude5172]

the problem is system requirement, nanite + lumen makes even the current gen console struggle, gamers are gonna have to upgrade their rig if they want to enjoy the new tech

[@DarinM1967]

Graphics looks awesome, but one of the biggest issues in video games even since the 90s is pushing flashy graphics instead of quality game play, story, sensible npc a.i. behavior, etc. The more easier it is to create flashier and flashier graphics the more lazy developers will be and have been in putting in the time and effort into making fun, and playable games. I've been playing video games since PONG in the 70s and this flash or substance keeps producing mostly garbage. I do agree there are some, and seriously a tiny number of games out there that have pulled off both flashy and gameplay, but for mass majority it's just another hook to get people to throw away their money on pretty pixels and nothing more. How about game engine companies and gaming companies in general spend more of their time and money on actually producing unbuggy, properly designed, tested, and more sincere publishing games that people actually can enjoy playing instead of just having a broken, unoptimized, buggy, illogical, irrational mess that looks and sounds cool! I love awesome graphics and amazing music scores like everyone else, but I love a game that actually makes sense playing and is fun!

[@opinionateddrone]

These assets could still be used for scifi. I could see a Stargate game using these assets, most of the planets SG1 visited were Canadian forests

[@ImmersiveGamer83]

We need it to be available fully for VR games. Lumen and namite still not fully working for vr

[@ElijahWLYT]

one thing not really mentioned in this video is that 2D gamedev is already a lot of work. 3D even moreso. Exciting tech, still requires a team to make use of it

[@LeftJoystick]

0:02 LevelCap going on a walk irl

[@MichaelBohemian]

levelcap always reminds me of that roller skater guy/comedian from Reno 911 but he talks about what I like to hear. No 2$ handies but good tech focused game talk.

[@TheLizardKing752]

Terryyyyyyyy

[@thekaxmax]

can they do an Australian one?

[@tshirtradical]

I posted this to GAB - excellent video and analysis. Omg that looks amazing lol

[@ddnguyen278]

The problem isn't making the forest, since that pretty much comes with the engine now with photogrammetry and UE5, its making a fun game within it.

[@BR1ZZO]

Didn't know levelcap was a dad. More respect for him now. 👏

[@SSarrival]

Could totally use this to document certain events, say a recently war torn area.

[@madeinsergei8492]

Ah yes, a beautiful day in the redwood forest with a Deathstar looming over.

[@MrMcGlinchey]

the death star is a nice touch there

[@RETROPRIME2001]

I a 3d artist who creates environment most of the time and I know Creating beautiful environment is not so much difficult but making a simple playable environment is way harder than it looks.

[@coreinstincts2659]

Screw your sponsors. You got a 1.92 million subs. Cool content.

[@cornerliston]

I wish developers also put an effort into animation and mechanics. Still on a very low level on so many games including AAA games.

[@OLIV3R_YT]

Asset flips will look so nice in the future 😅

[@gemizu4874]

6:10 Didn't the developers of Chernoblyte literally do Just that? Im pretty sure they went to Pripyat and 3d scanned some interior buildings and plant life or something i cant remember 100%

[@jonny555ive]

Very cool idea, the tech is absolutely amazing. 👍👍 This really opens up the gate for some low tech developer who can't afford a bunch of mapping engineers..... Very VERY AWESOME. Nice job unreal engine Thanks for the upload to this You've got a new subscriber.

[@Gradashy]

Photo Realism doesn't make a game better, sometimes is even worse because it makes the game looks generic. The art aspect of the game is much more important than the number of polys or the texture resolution and if it is a photo. I stopped to buy AAA games and one of the reasons is they all look the same, and almost always play the same.