Tim Sweeney, the creator of Epic Games' Unreal Engine, predicted in 2015 that within 10 years it would be difficult to distinguish between sensory reality and virtual reality. 2025 is now upon us, but given the progress of technology (and Unreal Engine) Sweeney's prediction could even come true a little earlier.
I still remember one of the commercials (it was perhaps 1983) of those 80s consoles that made us children of the time sleepless. I'll show you first:
Believe it or not, one of the points that I considered unbeatable about this console was the "realism" of which the commercial speaks. An unprecedented graphic quality for me. “It feels so real,” I would say to my father in a (vain) attempt to get him to buy me one. He has always been for the personal computer, and he would have made an even greater effort to buy me "something more serious": a Vic 20.
He was right
I thank him every now and then for that choice. Those 16-bit games looked nothing like real life. And neither did their 32-bit, or 64-bit successors, nor anything else that would follow them: they were simply the best we had seen up to that point and with a little imagination and good storytelling, we suspended disbelief and we thought they were “realistic”.
This is different. This time it's really different, I assure you. Unreal Engine 5 could represent a real paradigm shift. Again, I'll show you first.
At first glance, it appears to be nothing more than a smartphone clip from an abandoned train station. Most people don't notice anything unusual until a little over a minute later, when day suddenly turns into night, and the "person filming" pulls out a flashlight to light the scene.
That person doesn't exist. Nothing exists. The whole scene was generated with Unreal Engine 5.
Unreal Engine 5 is the next metaverse
This reconstruction based on a real train station in Toyama, Japan shows what will happen with more powerful computers and faster connections.
Overall, Unreal Engine 5 provides an immersive experience that is truly nearly indistinguishable from the real thing. This technology it will continue to develop and provide people with a more realistic way to experience different environments. As technology improves, the metaverse is likely to become increasingly popular and accessible to all.
