M1 Master Could it be more Unreal?

Our playable showcase demo offers a main menu with various options to interact with. The HOST button starts a new session and the user acts as a host. The JOIN button has the function of joining an existing session. The button QUIT closes the application. It is required to log in to Steam, when playing the demo, as the demo is only playable with 2 users.

The demo also includes a pause menu - in case you need a little break. From the pause menu, you can continue exploring, or quit the application. If a client quits the demo, a new client can join the session. But if the host quits the demo, the other connected client will leave the demo also.

If a user gets lost with the controls, it is possible to activate a help menu or tutorial menu which shows the controller controls. As our demo does not support keyboard and mouse controls, it might be tricky for one or another to figuring out the use of a game controller.

Experiencing the world alone is fun, but it is more fun exploring the world together. Don’t you think? So, we decided to implement a multiplayer in our project using Steam. Steam is a digital software distribution platform. There are plugins from the Unreal Engine community available called Advanced Steam Sessions. This plugin allows the implementation of a simple multiplayer.

Our focus was not to challenge the user with a complex world, but to amaze the user. The world we created offers a deep atmosphere: dense woods, animals wandering around, a broad view and much more. Our goal was to create a world that you can immerse yourself in.

To give life to our world, it contains wandering deer that graze and ravens that eat and fly. The animals have a complex AI that reacts to the characters in the demo. The deer behave realistically by always staying in a group and one deer behaves as an alpha. All other deer stay close to the alpha. The deer run away, if a playable character gets too close.

Also, in various places in the world, there is a group of ravens that are pecking at soil for food. The ravens behave the same as the deer, if a playable character gets too close, the ravens fly away with a colorful dissolve effect.

A world without insects is not a truly living world. Our world offers butterflies flying around in certain places, which provide more life.

The showcase demo offers 3 different riddles in total. Teamwork is required to solve these riddles. But do not worry, the riddles are not complex, but fun. In order not to anticipate the suspense, here is only one screenshot of one riddle for you:

Can you relate? You want to explore a digital world together, but you don’t have a headset to communicate with others. So, how do you communicate elegantly with each other? Correct! With a system that triggers different gestures - a radial menu. Simply interact with a specific button, and a variety of different gestures can be selected.

MetaHuman is a framework that enables anyone to create highly realistic human characters. Not only can you choose from near-infinite variations of facial features and skin complexions, its MetaHuman Creator is further equipped with an array of different options for hair, eyes, make-up, and teeth. Any such data is derived from real-world scans and your adjustments are constrained to fit within the limits set by the examples in its database. All MetaHumans come with a full facial and body rig, ready to animate in Unreal Engine.

Lumen is Unreal Engine 5’s fully dynamic global illumination and reflections system. It renders diffuse interreflection with infinite bounces and indirect specular reflections in large, detailed environments at scales ranging from millimeters to kilometers.

Nanite is a new virtualized geometry system of Unreal Engine 5, which uses a new internal mesh format and rendering technology to render pixel scale detail and high object counts. It intelligently shows only human-perceivable details.

Niagara Fluids is a plugin that adds templates for real-time fluid simulation. It contains fluid effects like fire, smoke, gas, water, and more. All simulations can be created in 2D or 3D. 2D templates are optimized for games, whereas the 3D templates are designed for cinematics. Fluid simulation methods give natural, realistic results compared to simpler particle-based setups. We made use of the Niagara Fluids and created torches.

Photogrammetry is the process of making models from photographs. We used it for the construction of some real-world assets. Which exactly? It will be revealed when playing the showcase demo. Photogrammetry is quite an expensive process. In order to create a good 3D Mesh, you need to take a lot of pictures of the object from all angles. The more images you have, the better. You can always filter out repetitive or poor-quality images. The more pictures, the longer the calculation takes.