Unreal 4 Video Contains Zero Explosions
Our previous look at the Unreal Engine 4 in action was the hyper-dramatic Infiltrator demo. It was sci-fi, it was 50 bajillion shades of grey, it was quite a spectacular piece of machinima that I totally want to play. This time around, there's almost no action or budget: just a couple of members of the development team talking about the engine's material layering capabilities. Where before the soundtrack was dramatic and swelling, here it's a dude saying things like: "I can see that adds a lot of flexibility to the art pipeline." Games!
It's always interesting to see how the sausages are made, and given that Epic's engine tools is gaming's industrial sausage grinder, this is relevant to everyone's interests. Plot twist: the developers presented in this video were rendered in Unreal Engine 5.
Oh god, I am lost. As far as I can tell, one material can contain multiple material layers, giving the artist a simple container for shaders, etc. So I guess the end result of the rocket that he shows off has just one layer that has all the information that places both the materials it's made out of, as well as the logo? Despite straining my brain, I still love watching this stuff. It is nearly educational and strangely soothing.
Totes from Polygon, yo.