Epic CTO says Xbox Series X and PS5 will render "movie-quality graphics"

Gaming’s lifelong goal of rendering life-like “movie-quality graphics” will finally be achieved this generation according to Epic Games CTO Kim Liberi.

In an interview with Official PlayStation Magazine, Liberi explained that the recently revealed Unreal Engine 5 will help developers achieve this state of visual fidelity through the software’s Nanite technology.

Epic’s Nanite technology is a purposefully designed piece of dynamic software that will craft LoDs for games based on full “movie quality” 3D assets, a crucial time saving method that should help reduce the “unsustainable” games industry.

“It has been a lifelong dream of mine that real-time computer graphics, and in particular games, can be as believable and realistic as a movie,” said Epic CTO Kim Liberi.

“Next-gen graphics and processing power will not only make games more immersive, but will also enable entirely new gameplay concepts that can take advantage of fully dynamic environments and lighting, much-improved physics, smarter AI, and richer multiplayer experiences.”

The Epic CTO explained that the evolution of Unreal Engine in collaboration with movie production – allowing real-time 3D sets on shows like The Mandalorian – has allowed the developer to converge upon both mediums.

“For many years, the movie industry has been experimenting with Unreal Engine for previsualisation and cinematic shot design, and then last year Jon Favreau and LucasFilm made the leap to use Unreal to generate final pixels for in-camera visual effects on The Mandalorian,” he said.

“Yet, there is still the challenge that the movie industry creates almost infinitely complex assets, and for real-time content, we need simplified polygon meshes and normal maps. With Nanite, a new breakthrough technology in Unreal Engine 5, we have removed the barriers.

“You can now create environments with full-quality cinematic assets and the engine does all the heavy lifting, resulting in some truly photorealistic results.”