At least there are officially no plans to turn Matrix Awakens into a full-fledged game. However, Epic has already confirmed that it will provide developers with access to all of the material that makes up the demo in the final release of Unreal 5.

🎮 PlayStation 5 (PS5): All About Unreal Engine 5 and Console Graphics

What is a technical demo?

A demo categorized this way is something a little more stripped down than the final version, like the ones you’ll find to get to know the game. Technology refers to technology and helps explain why productions like The Matrix Awakening can be so innovative in terms of technology, yet simple to play. The technology demonstration function is solely about testing and demonstrating the capabilities of new technologies available to developers.

From Epic’s perspective, this is very important: more than the developer behind Fortnite or creator Epic Games Score, a North American corporation responsible for the creation and development of Unreal Engine, the industry’s benchmark graphics engine.

By creating a high-quality technology demo showcasing the new Unreal Engine 5’s arsenal of features, Epic is promoting its tools to developers and the public. In addition, the fact that a new Matrix movie is coming soon ultimately contributed to the project by giving it a strong name that could attract many people.

What can you do in Matrix Awakens?

The demo has two modes and the player can access it at any time. The first one will be played when you first start the “game”: it starts with scenes that mix video and simulations through the Unreal Engine in such a way that it’s hard to tell which part of the material is real or not. This duality – also found in the Matrix trilogy – serves as a common thread in this introduction.

Soon the player sets off on a high-speed pursuit through the city streets, and he needs to destroy the agents. The commands are simple and it looks like a normal adventure sequence in games like Uncharted… What is shown on the screen is played in real time on the same map that the player can explore later, including challenging physics simulation that guarantees unique explosions on the screen.

After enjoying a short introduction and seeing the result of the chase, the player gains access to the exploration mode, in which a huge city is open to the user’s curiosity. You can walk the streets and fly with a free drone-like camera. In addition, the game allows you to drive any parked vehicle (there is no way to steal cars in a traffic jam, but there will be no shortage of 38,146 vehicles available in the city). Finally, there is the option to play around with photographic modes and filters that show the difference in demo graphics with or without Unreal technologies connected.

The Epic Demo aims to showcase what has to offer with the hardware of next-gen consoles, which explains why the PlayStation 4 versions (PS4) e Xbox one… One aspect that becomes apparent throughout the experience is that the Matrix Awakens does not need to stop to load any city elements or action sequences, which is a testament to the importance of SSDs found on newer consoles.

The fast SSD read speed on modern consoles allows you to download the entire city without jumps. The city (total area of ​​15.7 km²) is not interrupted, and even objects and buildings in the distance are placed instantly, without problems with settlement.

Remember that pop-ups are a very common problem with HD games and objects load very quickly next to the character.

In addition, the system that creates all of the map lighting technique works with the special equipment of the new ray tracing consoles, a technology that was not available in the last generation. The tool allows you to display the effects of sunlight, shadows and reflections much more realistically, a technology that was not available in the last generation.

Another relevant aspect is artificial intelligence in the demonstration: the behavior of drivers and pedestrians on the map is simple, although it looks quite natural. However, perhaps more than the complexity itself, what is most impressive is the density. According to Epic, there are 35,000 dynamically simulated pedestrians, which would not have been possible in a 2013 processor, a technology profile that matches the processor PS4 e xbox On thee…

How does it work and what is Unreal Engine 5?

Given the relevance of graphics, the industry has become accustomed to referring to technologies like the Unreal Engine as a “graphics engine.” However, today this tool has a more complete set of functions and goes beyond what a simple intermediary for creating images on the screen can offer.

Engines like Unreal or Unity tools that promise to make game development easier. If you are familiar with programming or have a good understanding of 3D modeling, you can create your own game by following the entire process from scratch. But in industries with a large budget and a level of complexity, this approach is impractical, as it makes production more expensive (and difficult). Therefore, the solution is to look for ready-made structures and tools that give access to the basics and take care of deeper and more complex processes.

Instead of building an entire complex set of software for rendering images in 3D and, who knows, applying a complex and fancy stage lighting system, a developer can use a ready-made framework from Epic or any other engine. Thanks to this, the development team can devote themselves to creating specific characteristics for each game, such as AI, mechanics, game modes, and others.

The Epic demo demonstrates a number of technologies available to developers in Unreal Engine 5. Among them, two are the most effective: Nanite and Lumen. The first is a system that virtualizes the geometry of objects in a scene, allowing them to have a seemingly infinite scale of detail. This means that no matter how close you bring the camera to your subject, it will always display more detail.

In Matrix Awakens, for example, photographing near asphalt reveals the small stones that make up the sidewalk, while photographing an architectural detail shows details of the concrete surface, and trash cans show marks, rust, scratches. and unevenness between layers.

In the previous image, you can see how the graphics engine breaks down elements on the screen into smaller and smaller triangles. As you zoom in or move the camera, these calculations are performed in real time, changing the appearance of each element and providing the impression that the level of detail of each object is “infinite.”

Lumen is a system responsible for modeling the behavior of light in scenes. The standard Unreal 5 feature deals with global scene illumination or the behavior of light emitted from the sun, as in the case of the Matrix. However, it also performs simulations that account for the effect of light as it hits surfaces, and generates indirect lighting, accurate shadows and reflections.

The Lumen system can be hardware accelerated, as is the case with the Matrix Awakens implementation, or it can also display good quality results using only software for devices that lack physical capabilities, such as dedicated ray tracing cores.

Other systems featured in the demo are Chaos, a physics simulation engine that appears in vehicle collisions and in the sequence at the start of the demo. The system is so complex that if you play the high speed chase more than once, subsequent vehicle explosions and rollovers will never be the same.

The simulation, featuring Keanu Reeves and other characters in high detail, is performed using Metahuman, a mechanism that generates realistic characters used in each of the 35,000 pedestrians that are part of the simulation. Another tool is massive AI, which provides dense traffic when hundreds of cars and people are visible on the screen.

Temporal Super Resolution (TSR) is another hot and hot technique: this mechanism allows you to render a scene on your screen in 4K at a much lower native resolution, all without losing quality.

The solution is not as advanced as the unique DLSS from Nvidia, but it gives amazing results when you consider that both the Xbox and PS5 When playing back scenarios, Matrix Awakens can go below native 1080p without making visible dips.