What the Next Generation of Unreal Driving Games Could Look Like


A free demonstration of the Unreal Engine 5 based on the Matrix movie series has been released, and shows the immense potential of the next generation of UE based games.

In 1999, The Matrix was released to theatres and blew the minds of theatregoers worldwide. In 2021, The Matrix Awakens: An Unreal Engine 5 Experience is blowing the minds of gamers.

The Matrix Awakens title is more of a showcase of what Unreal Engine 5 games will look like rather than being a true game, but it does allow PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S gamers to assume the controls and walk, fly or drive to explore the massive open world environment.

There are two reasons why this should appeal to sim racers and racing game fans. First, the Unreal Engine has been successfully implemented in many racing titles, ranging from the simulation-focused Assetto Corsa Competizione to the fun-focused Hot Wheels: Unleashed. Second, TMA allows you to drive any of the over 38,000 (that’s not a typo) vehicles parked around the map.

The result is nothing short of staggering. The visuals presented by The Matrix Awakens looks better than any title I’ve played in my life. If this UE5 demonstration had been limited to one city block or one building it would be impressive, but Epic Games has somehow packed in 250 kilometers of roads to explore across the 16 square kilometer map.

The Unreal Engine 5 shows massive improvements in the use of light, and the physics associated with the movement and interaction of soft objects is extremely impressive. In the context of driving, the physics of the soft objects has been implemented with the body of your vehicle, so the deformations from impacts to body work approaches the level of the best car damage models in gaming.

This is truly a mind-blowing experience. Of course, the implementation of this technology to games will yield varying results, but the graphics and physics possibilities of the Unreal Engine 5 are astonishing. Let’s hope our favourite racing game developers are taking a careful look at this engine for future titles.

What are your thoughts on the Unreal Engine 5 for racing games? Let us know on Twitter at @RaceDepartment or in the comments section below!
  • Like
  • Love
Reactions: microwindowz, Jopamir, OZ67 and 10 others
About author
Mike Smith
Mike Smith
I have been obsessed with sim racing and racing games since the 1980's. My first taste of live auto racing was in 1988, and I couldn't get enough ever since. Lead writer for RaceDepartment, and owner of SimRacing604 and its YouTube channel. Favourite sims include Assetto Corsa Competizione, Assetto Corsa, rFactor 2, Automobilista 2, DiRT Rally 2 - On Twitter as @simracing604

More in Other Games

Comments

Jugulador
BeamNG.drive physics and AMS2/PC2 VR are just some proofs that simracing future don't lies in the pursuit of ultrarealistic graphics.
 
Last edited:
Alex72
One of the new inventions im happy about is DLSS. It makes so much difference performance wise and its anti-aliasing function (however it achieves it) is like MSAA 8x or more but with superb performance. I have tested a few games now with DLSS and it makes the image so clear, crisp and my GPU runs much smoother and cooler thanks to the performance boost.

New flashy graphics is great as long as they invent new ways of pushing all that stuff easier and better. THere has been many years with new graphics that forced you to constantly update your hardware. My RTX2070 started now to be on the edge but DLSS made me able to go ULTRA with a lot of room to spare for even more flashy graphics. Love DLSS and i want to see it MOAR in games than we currently do. :)

I have started to relax with TheHunter Call of the Wild, and even though i can push close to max my GPU runs a bit hot. If they added DLSS it would look even better and give more room for max settings.
 
delpinsky
RinusDirtRally said:
I don't know. Racing games need performance, because we often use Triples or 49inch. I would prefer a bit less eye candy in favour of physics, FFB, able to run 20+ AI and all that. I remember running ACC for the first time and I could barely hit 60fps. Even low settings were somewhat confusing. That was with my 1070 on a 34inch monitor back then.
Click to expand...
Come on... do you really believe it's a trade off between graphics and physics?!?
We are not in 1999 anymore. UE5 is capable to load an mount of polygons that is unbelievable and it doesn't even need LODs anymore! You got an RTX card, you're good. The physics department is taken by CPU and also GPU. Believe me, you don't have to trade graphics for physics anymore, in 2022. The only limitation? The skills of the developers and your PC hardware.
 
Turk
Looking at the video again more closely the models don't look all that fantastic, the main benefits seem to be the the graphical extras that get applied by the engine. Good lighting and practical effects. It looked to me like they were showing off all the default features of the engine and how easily they improve the look of what's on scree by just turning things on rather than programming them in.
 
BP
Seems many people are missing the point, commenting on the handling/physics of the car in the demo or how expensive a rig or taxing on FPS, etc.

Mike was saying that this is what simracing titles in the future (ie not necessarily 6 months or even 2 years from now) could look like. The handling of the car in this demo is irrelevant; this is not a sim so stop judging it as such. You guys need to step out of your comfort zone and think big picture: these tech demos are there to push the art form of 3D graphic design, to give artists a new tool to express themselves in more elaborate ways, which, given time and increases in hardware power, will reap amazing benefits in the future.

To put in musical terms: You think whatever demo they did of a Fender Strat back in the 40’s, or the Fender Bass in the 50’s or the Moog synthesisers did it justice? No…but give it to a Jimi Hendrix, a Jaco Pastorius or a Stevie Wonder years later and then you see what is possible with imagination.

We can have lifelike graphics AND great physics/FFB/safety cars etc…just be patient and the real innovators will create it in time. Take a break from complaining and realise we’re still in the golden age of simracing :)
 
Boby Kim
Paying 2000 euro for a 3080ti or 3000 euro for a 3090 is a problem though.
And as long as crypto mining is used via gpu's the prices will be abnormal high...this is a serious problem for pc gaming as it affects the whole hardware market. UE5 looks good but are there enough gamers that can spend 6000 euro only for a PC?
 
PurgerUK
Premium
Looks fantastic but as a primarily VR racer the problem with UE5 is that all of the exciting new tech such as Lumen and Nanite are not supported in VR. Not sure if this is a limitation of the engine or just that they prioritised the bigger flat screen market and will be adding in support next year.
 
D
delpinsky said:
Come on... do you really believe it's a trade off between graphics and physics?!?
We are not in 1999 anymore. UE5 is capable to load an mount of polygons that is unbelievable and it doesn't even need LODs anymore! You got an RTX card, you're good. The physics department is taken by CPU and also GPU. Believe me, you don't have to trade graphics for physics anymore, in 2022. The only limitation? The skills of the developers and your PC hardware.
Click to expand...
AMS 2 has a great compromise. Its not the best looking game out there, but it surely does it job. It has also live weather and all kind of weather. They concentrate on physics, FFB and AI. MP will always be a thing, tho. But at last I can run it decently on my 49 inch with a 3070. With lots of AI or extreme weather, etc etc. Can't say that about ACC on everything high/ultra :D
 
Last edited by a moderator:
delpinsky
@RinusDirtRally but here we are talking of Unreal Engine 5 (or any next gen engine we will see in the future), so you have to think of the future of simracing, not the actual engines or the old ones, like the one used by AMS2, the Madness Engine.
It's totally another story and thefore no compromises between physics and graphics, not to mention AI :cool:
 
D
I am sshh. Can't win this, becaus you don't understand :D
 
B
BP said:
Seems many people are missing the point, commenting on the handling/physics of the car in the demo or how expensive a rig or taxing on FPS, etc.

Mike was saying that this is what simracing titles in the future (ie not necessarily 6 months or even 2 years from now) could look like. The handling of the car in this demo is irrelevant; this is not a sim so stop judging it as such. You guys need to step out of your comfort zone and think big picture: these tech demos are there to push the art form of 3D graphic design, to give artists a new tool to express themselves in more elaborate ways, which, given time and increases in hardware power, will reap amazing benefits in the future.

To put in musical terms: You think whatever demo they did of a Fender Strat back in the 40’s, or the Fender Bass in the 50’s or the Moog synthesisers did it justice? No…but give it to a Jimi Hendrix, a Jaco Pastorius or a Stevie Wonder years later and then you see what is possible with imagination.

We can have lifelike graphics AND great physics/FFB/safety cars etc…just be patient and the real innovators will create it in time. Take a break from complaining and realise we’re still in the golden age of simracing :)
Click to expand...


I agree, it's a look at what it could be in the future, say at the minimum 5 years from now or more (for a sim).
But new sims using a new engine do not grow on trees (some are 10+ years old) and I'm really skeptic for a non AAA studio to be able to make justice to the UE5 engine in term of high quality assets. There is no AAA sim developer in existence, in term of budget and size (although iRacing may have the budget). The closest we had was Slightly Mad Studio.
 
Last edited:
BP
b)b said:
I agree, it's a look at what it could be in the future, say at the minimum 5 years from now or more (for a sim).
But new sims using a new engine do not grow on trees (some are 10+ years old) and I'm really skeptic for a non AAA studio to be able to make justice to the UE5 engine in term of high quality assets. There is no AAA sim developer in existence, in term of budget and size (although iRacing may have the budget). The closest we had was Slightly Mad Studio.
Click to expand...
I’d argue that Kunos is getting there if they play their cards right
 
RichardHessels
Ah another topic that went down the drain with "nag"ativity.
I look forward to the first developer that gets it done properly for a racing simulation..
The toolkit of this engine is beyond anything we ever seen on a screen in realtime.
Have a look at this.
 
Last edited:
G
PurgerUK said:
Looks fantastic but as a primarily VR racer the problem with UE5 is that all of the exciting new tech such as Lumen and Nanite are not supported in VR. Not sure if this is a limitation of the engine or just that they prioritised the bigger flat screen market and will be adding in support next year.
Click to expand...

Source?

If this is true then Unreal Engine 5 would be the WORST choice for race sims. ACC is already close to unplayable in VR (I got it running at 90 fps with an 3080ti+adler lake, but those pixels... it does work/run but compared to AMS2 "it doesn't"; it's simply that bad compared to each other(or AMS2 is that good)). And ACC got UE4.

I think that UE5 would be the worst engine ever for an VR race sim title. So developers please look further; please check on forehand how good VR works because otherwise we have a missed chance again.
 
RichardHessels
TurboT said:
Source?

If this is true then Unreal Engine 5 would be the WORST choice for race sims. ACC is already close to unplayable in VR (I got it running at 90 fps with an 3080ti+adler lake, but those pixels... it does work/run but compared to AMS2 "it doesn't"; it's simply that bad compared to each other(or AMS2 is that good)). And ACC got UE4.

I think that UE5 would be the worst engine ever for an VR race sim title. So developers please look further; please check on forehand how good VR works because otherwise we have a missed chance again.
Click to expand...
Since when did VR become mainstream? It's a niche and will stay there for a while.
 

Latest News

Article information

Author
Mike Smith
Article read time
2 min read
Views
18,534
Comments
78
Last update

Share this article

What's needed for simracing in 2024?

  • More games, period

  • Better graphics/visuals

  • Advanced physics and handling

  • More cars and tracks

  • AI improvements

  • AI engineering

  • Cross-platform play

  • New game Modes

  • Other, post your idea

Results are only viewable after voting.
See comments…
Back
Top