Unity unveils new Tech Demo “Lion” running on PS5 at SIGGRAPH 2022

[LED]

“Lion marks a key milestone for our Unity Art Tools, and illustrates our ongoing work to build tools that empower creators.

This collaborative demo showcases what happens when artists and developers work together at the production level to push the boundaries of what’s possible for real-time, high-fidelity visuals.”

“This combined production and technological effort features innovations in real-time technology that shows content created with Wētā Digital, SpeedTree, Ziva, SyncSketch, and the Unity Editor artist tools – now part of an integrated demo in a real-time pipeline, experienced on consumer hardware, running at 30 fps at 4K on PlayStation 5®.”

New real-time demo, Lion: Unity Art Tools in action and the future of Wētā Digital for RT3D | Unity Blog

Experience our latest real-time demo, Lion, which brings artist tools from Wētā Digital, Ziva, SpeedTree, SyncSketch, and the Unity Editor together for the first time.

blog.unity.com

 

[DynamiteCop]

In before the same psychobabble about Unreal Engine 5 where people for some reason thought only the PlayStation 5 was capable of running that stuff....

 

[LED]

The demo was running at 4K 30 FPS on PS5, Unity confirmed that.

 

[DynamiteCop]

The demo was running at 4K 30 FPS on PS5, Unity said that.

And?

 

[IntentionalPun]

Since they actually demo'd this yesterday is there more video of it than this short snippet?

I think it might be it... which is pretty weird for a tech demo.

It looks good and cool and all it runs on a PS5 but tech demos still aren't usually very realistic.

 

[LED]

And?

Forgot to mention that, that's all LOL!!

 

[LED]

Since they actually demo'd this yesterday is there more video of it than this short snippet?

I think it might be it... which is pretty weird for a tech demo.

It looks good and cool and all it runs on a PS5 but tech demos still aren't usually very realistic.

I think we'll see a full video of some sort at SIGGRAPH maybe, or if that's all they have for now, it's cool.

 

[Dr Bass]

Looks good. Too bad Unity as an engine is apparently having issues.

Finishing a project is apparently a real problem for people who use it, because of how unruly it gets. To the point where Unity themselves dropped their sample game project, that was going to be an entire end to end game they put out for people to see how it's done. They just gave up on it.

So it sorta doesn't matter how nice your rendering is if you can't make a product with it. Not that I know, but it seems like they are without much direction right now.

 

[Heisenberg007]

Since they actually demo'd this yesterday is there more video of it than this short snippet?

I think it might be it... which is pretty weird for a tech demo.

It looks good and cool and all it runs on a PS5 but tech demos still aren't usually very realistic.

The visual fidelity of all previous tech demos was surpassed by mid-gen. So this bodes really well.

For reference, here is the Unreal Engine 4 tech demo.

Uncharted 4 which came in May 2016 (roughly the mid point of the generation) had already surpassed that tech demo.

These tech demos give us a glimpse of the future of gaming -- assuming developers and publishers are willing to spend the money on high-quality AAA projects. Yes, there is a factor of diminishing returns, but I'm hopeful and confident, actually, that we'll be able to see this visual fidelity in games by 2024-2025 (+1-2 years because of COVID).

 

[Gamernyc78]

In before you hear ppl say "but we still haven't seen the fidelity in games seen in past demos" There is a big difference from what is possible if a game were a slice or small in scope as opposed to the huge games we now get. What a demo shows is a possibility but not the reality given the big scope of games. Bits and pieces of that tech will be seen but nothing as good overall as what we seen because games are alot bigger abd demanding than a tech demo.

 

[Yurinka]

In before you hear ppl say "but we still haven't seen the fidelity in games seen in past demos" There is a big difference from what is possible if a game were a slice or small in scope as opposed to the huge games we now get. What a demo shows is a possibility but not the reality given the big scope of games. Bits and pieces of that tech will be seen but nothing as good overall as what we seen because games are alot bigger abd demanding than a tech demo.

Yep. Particularly tech demos are to showcase the new tools and stuff that features that the engine allows: maybe stuff related to lighting, particles, visual effects, physics, animaton, fluids or many other stuff like in this case I assume fur and real time fur and muscles behavior.

 

[IntentionalPun]

The visual fidelity of all previous tech demos was surpassed by mid-gen. So this bodes really well.

Suit yourself; I don't think we live in the same world as 2012.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

Wow. Only the PS5 can run this demo. It should be thanks to the power of the S.S.D.

Solid State Dick.

 

[peter42O]

Looks like Unity just won a contract with the U.S. Government -

 

[ethomaz]

People always forget it but Unity is the most popular engine used by game developers.

Sadly it is not used by big AAA developers (that are very few) but that demo maybe can bring more options to Unity to be used in AAA projects.

 

[Alabtrosmyster]

In before the same psychobabble about Unreal Engine 5 where people for some reason thought only the PlayStation 5 was capable of running that stuff....

Imagine how fast it would be with 12tf, vrs 2 day and date on GP!

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

In before the same psychobabble about Unreal Engine 5 where people for some reason thought only the PlayStation 5 was capable of running that stuff....

Imagine being this paranoid over a tech demo

Anyway, that was really short, but it looked super-good. And better than that CGI Lion King train wreck from Disney

Looks like Unity just won a contract with the U.S. Government -

Hmm...could be very good or very bad. Guessing more VR military simulation programs (Unity did also have that VR demo a couple months ago too IIRC).

In before you hear ppl say "but we still haven't seen the fidelity in games seen in past demos" There is a big difference from what is possible if a game were a slice or small in scope as opposed to the huge games we now get. What a demo shows is a possibility but not the reality given the big scope of games. Bits and pieces of that tech will be seen but nothing as good overall as what we seen because games are alot bigger abd demanding than a tech demo.

I'd argue that RDR2, Cyberpunk (on PC) and TLOU Part 2 surpassed the demos shown for PS4/XBO back in 2012/2013.

The issue is that getting to that point in a commercial release is taking longer and longer, needing more dev time, larger teams, more outsourcing and bigger budgets. Which means more time. So generations have to either run longer or we end up with less AAA games overall (there are but so many support studios, artists, animators, programmers etc. in the industry after all, particularly on AAA side) to get games near the end that meet or exceed the tech demos shown early on.

Though I'd argue in some ways, at least with games like HFW, we're already getting games that measure up very strongly (or exceed in some areas) to the UE5 demo from 2020 and Enter the Matrix city demo, while being huge games on top of that. Well, I guess maybe only HFW would meet that criteria so far IMO, and that's thanks to being a 1P game using a custom, proprietary in-house engine.

So there is some hope we can get a couple of big AAA games by 2024 or so that match up to if not surprise those earlier demos, though I think the best chance for that is going to come from Sony 1P. Maybe Naughty Dog's next game, Spiderman 2, Wolverine, or whatever SSM's original new IP are. Heck, GOW Ragnarok should compare as favorably to the 2020 UE5 demo and Matrix demo as HFW does IMHO.

 

[Gamernyc78]

Imagine being this paranoid over a tech demo

Anyway, that was really short, but it looked super-good. And better than that CGI Lion King train wreck from Disney



Hmm...could be very good or very bad. Guessing more VR military simulation programs (Unity did also have that VR demo a couple months ago too IIRC).



I'd argue that RDR2, Cyberpunk (on PC) and TLOU Part 2 surpassed the demos shown for PS4/XBO back in 2012/2013.

The issue is that getting to that point in a commercial release is taking longer and longer, needing more dev time, larger teams, more outsourcing and bigger budgets. Which means more time. So generations have to either run longer or we end up with less AAA games overall (there are but so many support studios, artists, animators, programmers etc. in the industry after all, particularly on AAA side) to get games near the end that meet or exceed the tech demos shown early on.

Though I'd argue in some ways, at least with games like HFW, we're already getting games that measure up very strongly (or exceed in some areas) to the UE5 demo from 2020 and Enter the Matrix city demo, while being huge games on top of that. Well, I guess maybe only HFW would meet that criteria so far IMO, and that's thanks to being a 1P game using a custom, proprietary in-house engine.

So there is some hope we can get a couple of big AAA games by 2024 or so that match up to if not surprise those earlier demos, though I think the best chance for that is going to come from Sony 1P. Maybe Naughty Dog's next game, Spiderman 2, Wolverine, or whatever SSM's original new IP are. Heck, GOW Ragnarok should compare as favorably to the 2020 UE5 demo and Matrix demo as HFW does IMHO.

I mean eventually as years pass by tech gets better and at some point big games catch up to the tech demos, just not in the near future for traditionally large games like people try to paint it or get disappointed if a tech demo comes out and within the gen they do not see a game with that caliber of graphics, it is not realistic.

I mean a water drip can eventually become a big mess or a sizable amount of water but it takes time

 

[Sircaw]

In before the same psychobabble about Unreal Engine 5 where people for some reason thought only the PlayStation 5 was capable of running that stuff....

Do you never stop moaning about PlayStation stuff?

 

[Gamernyc78]

Do you never stop moaning about PlayStation stuff?

No it was the same on gaf I see a few familiar names lol