In cursory: A few months back, Epic assembled a pocket-sized squad of developers to see what they could come up with using the latest version of Unreal Engine 5. The end outcome was a new practical sample project called "Valley of the Ancient" and it's being shown publicly now for the first time.

It was just over one year agone when Epic Games unveiled its next-generation game engine, Unreal Engine 5. The team showcased its possibilities through a tech demo called "Lumen in the Land of Nanite," and have continued to refine the engine ever since.

The foundation of Unreal Engine 5 consists of two key technologies. Nanite is a virtualized micro polygon geometry system that lets artists create as much item every bit the middle can see, without compromising speed. "Nanite let the artist create while the engine does the piece of work," said Galen Davis, producer and evangelist for Quixel at Epic Games.

A new anti-aliasing solution chosen Temporal Super Resolution is tasked with keeping up with all of the new geometric detail. Co-ordinate to Epic, it is able to do so with quality approaching native 4K at the cost of 1080p.

Lumen, meanwhile, is a fully dynamic real-time global illumination solution that reacts to scene and light change. When working in tandem, Nanite and Lumen can create highly impressive photorealistic environments that could truly accept gaming leaps and bounds beyond where it is today.

This only scratches the surface of what's possible in Unreal Engine 5. For a deeper dive, exist sure to check out the total video. And if you'd rather leap right in and go your hands dirty, Unreal Engine 5 is at present available in early access.