The Matrix Awakens: An Unreal Engine 5 Tech Demo | PS5 | Xbox: Series X/S

[Mister Pink]

Just incredible. New gen consoles only. 

 

 

 

[deadx23]

I'm going to download it tonight and just look around, I'm trying to see the size of it but it doesn't show on my PSN app. 

[trip]

25 minutes ago, deadx23 said:

I'm going to download it tonight and just look around, I'm trying to see the size of it but it doesn't show on my PSN app. 

Bout 30 gigs on series x.

 

Very cool.  Really crazy to think games can/are going to look like this.

[Creed Bratton]

There's one thing to keep in mind, though. What's gonna happen when games are graphically indistinguishable from reality, and yet the surrounding world remains extremely limited? For example, if you can't break a part of a wall that you absolutely should be able to break if you hit it strong enough. Or if the AI doesn't react appropriately to things. That sort of stuff matters a lot in this context. This is why I'm not in favor of photorealistic games. Unless a game can account for all the relevant details that complement its photorealism, I am not impressed.

Edited December 11, 2021 by Yokelsson

[sabitsuki]

looks nice and the filters good, but man the sound effects department needs work. I know it's the matrix and all but god damn that took me out.

[TKDSnovelist]

13 hours ago, Yokelsson said:

There's one thing to keep in mind, though. What's gonna happen when games are graphically indistinguishable from reality, and yet the surrounding world remains extremely limited? For example, if you can't break a part of a wall that you absolutely should be able to break if you hit it strong enough. Or if the AI doesn't react appropriately to things. That sort of stuff matters a lot in this context. This is why I'm not in favor of photorealistic games. Unless a game can account for all the relevant details that complement its photorealism, I am not impressed.

 

This will simply be the next step after reaching photorealism, AI and damage... i might be wrong but graphics are the easiest thing to master here.

[GiveMeLiberty78]

Interesting video @Mister Pink, thanks for sharing. That is the first games video I have ever watched, where I genuinely mistook in-game footage for real-life footage.

Also, I agree with @TKDSnovelist; I think that more advanced AI and damage, among other features, are the next logical progression in gaming. With increasingly-powerful GPUs (even though not widely available or at reasonable prices, yet), I think that what you suggested @Yokelsson is definitely feasible and yes, a relevant next step in development.

[Mister Pink]

Funny thing is if you park a car on the freeway, the traffic AI is basic, so it traffic just stops and it doesn't know how to go around you. I recommend doing this and watching how many cars you can see in the traffic jam. It's quite spectacular. I took some screenshots but can't find them 

 

Some screenshots.. 

 

 

 

 

 

Also best crash physics since GTA IV for this type of sandbox game. 

 

 

[Jabalous]

12 minutes ago, Mister Pink said:

Also best crash physics since GTA IV for this type of sandbox game. 

 

 

Time to bring Burnout back, EA. 

[Failed Again]

I love this advance in Graphic's, yet after watching the Game Award 2021

I can't help feeling a bit depressed that the focus/ theme of gaming seems so limited to me.

We need better games with better content and new genre's .something more...

[DEALUX]

Uncanny valley got wrecked lol. Some parts tricked me as well but looking back at some of the close up shots, you can kinda tell slightly which Keanu is real.

 

 

[TheSantader25]

Graphics keep developing but much more important things like AI, physics and gameplay features have really stagnated in the past couple of years. But if this gives devs more time to focus on those features, it can be a good thing.

 

One other thing I like to say is, I really don't like clear cut photorealism. I think games should always have a bit of an artistic touch to their graphics to make them look more beautiful than real life. I want games to be more appealing than real life. Not similar to it. I think R* often do a good job in adding the right amount of artistic beauty to their worlds as an example(RDR2, GTA V)

Edited December 12, 2021 by TheSantader25

[Jason]

Playing it on Series S isn't particularly impressive honestly. Even taking the frame rate aside, it's very very grainy (SSR I imagine) and has a lot of poor texture work. The lighting is fantastic but that's about the most impressive thing here.

 

I think Cyberpunk on a high end PC with raytracing looks more impressive tbh. Tech demos like this make for good screens but games are way, way more than that. They're motion, they're sound, they're interactive, this demo has motion but (on a series S) it didn't even blow me away there.

 

Games that feel lived in feel far more real and immersive than photogrammetry created worlds as well. Take Guardians of the Galaxy for example, that for me is the best looking game I've played because the one the art style is very cohesive and fits together perfectly but also because everything things lived in and real.

 

This... this looks and feels super bland. It's a tech demo so it's very harsh to compare it to games with years of development but it is a tech demo that's intended to showcase the future of games and yet to my eyes and ears I've already experienced better.

[Mister Pink]

The lighting is really impressive alright. But, I'm pretty sure the grain is a deliberate stylistic choice so as to mimic the film grain of 35mm Kodak. I went into it thinking I'm getting to experience them mimic the colour-grade and art direction of The Matrix, a 20+ year old film and shot on film. They really nailed colour-grade and motion blur. The motion-blur is the best I've seen as it seems to represent how it looks shot originally in 24p. 

 

 

This video below is a really good side-by-side of the demo and film. What I'm impressed about is the realistic depth-of-field. As a photographer and cinematographer/camera operator, I've always been disappointed by the unrealistic and excessive misuse of shallow depth of field in video games. It has gotten much better. But at the end of the PS3/360 gen there were many devs woefully abusing it. It's not the use if it, I'm against, I like it, it's the misuse of it. This Awakens seems to be just a really good copy of the cinematic values of the film.  But who knows what his would looks like if they weren't aiming for cinematic. 

 

My worry about this demo was that it's just that, a demo. When a developer is working with limited hardware power, trying to fill out a big city with pedestrians, traffic AI, pedestrian AI and all the all the other things, I might be difficult to achieve graphics this nice. 

 

The only thing that didn't impress me was lack of car engine audio as well as no rumble on the controller. That felt weird. Feels like all the cars are electric. But then again, it's just a demo and it comes out to coincide with the launch of the new film. Also, The original Matrix is now showing in the cinema again. Think it might even be in the IMAX. Pity as I just watched the film recently but I'm still tempted to go. 

 

[Jason]

5 minutes ago, Mister Pink said:

But, I'm pretty sure the grain is a deliberate stylistic choice so as to mimic the film grain of 35mm Kodak.

 

This wasn't film grain I was getting on the S, it to my eye looked like the grainy effect you get on the ground from SSR reflections. Cyberpunk has the same issue w/o raytracing turned on, here and here are some examples of what I mean in Cyberpunk.

 

I do think this demo highlights the benefits and problems of photogrammetry though, like if you compare shots of the city to real world shots it's 1:1, with the great lighting in the tech demo side by side screenshots can be actually hard to distinguish. But the problem is, IMO, as Santader touched on, full photo realism is just... odd.

 

The best video game worlds be it open world or linear all have great atmospheres, but what makes a great real world atmosphere is as of this day and age impossible in a video game for multiple reasons but a big one being the lack of smell. Video games with great atmospheres instead dial up the effects it can use, RDR2 is a fantastic example with it's heavy fog, mist, sunrays etc. Those aren't truly realistic but they create an immersive and memorable atmosphere. This is purely just a tech demo and not a game so it's wrong to sh*t on this for it, but I do think it highlights that developers can't simply use photogrammetry to create photo realistic visuals and call it a day.

[Badman_]

Mind = blown.

[BUT THE BENZ]

wow, I very clearly recall SHENMUE for dreamcast, thinking WOW back then. and now we get, THIS. crazy!

absolutely looking forward to story-driven adventures with these kind of graphics!

[Jason]

To what I was saying earlier about it on the Series S, after reading some other stuff about it it appears likely a big reason why I wasn't blown away was cause the resolution on the S is all over the place, so that likely causes some of the pretty poor image quality stuff I was seeing.

 

Hope they put this out on PC or something so I can give it a whirl there.

[Mexicola9302]

f*ck consoles i want this for PC.

 

I plan to buy a RTX 4080 next year, even tho i got a RTX 3080. It has double perfomance apparently. Teraflops wise.

 

So why ever make anything console exclusive?

 

Edit: Gonna Stick to my R9 5950x, 32 GB 3800 MHZ DDR4 RAM and NVMe PCI-E 4.0 for a few years tho. Maybe in like 3-5 years i get a complete new rig, but first just a new GPU.

 

Damn maybe i even get a RTX 4090.

Edited December 18, 2021 by Mexicola9302

[Jason]

18 minutes ago, Mexicola9302 said:

I plan to buy a RTX 4080 next year, even tho i got a RTX 3080. It has double perfomance apparently. Teraflops wise.

 

For one, teraflops are not indicative of real world performance and is something console makers started using because it's an easier number to sell to normies. nVidia and AMD have no history of using it for a reason and nVidia has only recently used it to jab at consoles.

 

Two, it almost definitely won't be double performance. nVidia's generational performance jumps usually happen every other gen, which usually means it's only worth upgrading when the generation after your card launches. So 3000 series > 5000 series is probably better... unless you've got plenty of money to blow, I suppose, then knock yer self out.

 

Honestly with the rise of DLSS, DSR, FSR and Intel's upcoming stuff modern GPU's have some serious legs these days. That technology is only going to get better and better too.

[Mexicola9302]

I just notice the games are such more worse optimized lately, that a new GPU wouldn't hurt. If i stick to the rest of my rig for a few years it would be okay. I don't got money to burn, but i love gaming. So i buy good new stuff, if i got the feeling it actually helps.

 

I love 2160p @ 120 HZ gaming, it looks and feels right.

 

Edit: I can run GTA V in 8K with 60 FPS.  well only downsampled but hey it's 8K and looks awesome. It's like there are no aliasing effects at all anymore, if playing downsampled like that.

 

I blame the pandemic for the bad optimizations lately. Ppl working from home office doesn't help at all.

 

I would buy a RTX 50XX too, of course i just sell the older ones right away.

Edited December 18, 2021 by Mexicola9302

[Kris194]

On 12/17/2021 at 10:12 PM, Jason said:

To what I was saying earlier about it on the Series S, after reading some other stuff about it it appears likely a big reason why I wasn't blown away was cause the resolution on the S is all over the place, so that likely causes some of the pretty poor image quality stuff I was seeing.

 

Hope they put this out on PC or something so I can give it a whirl there.

Matrix Demo on XSS looks just bad.

 

 

I would have to be really blind to don't notice very, very poor resolution, definitely below 1080p.

[Bigglo145]

What city is the map based on?

[DexMacLeod]

1 hour ago, Bigglo145 said:

What city is the map based on?

 

Mega City, the fictional city from the movies. Pretty sure it's heavily inspired by Chicago, though.

[Bigglo145]

34 minutes ago, DexMacLeod said:

 

Mega City, the fictional city from the movies. Pretty sure it's heavily inspired by Chicago, though.

Ahh thanks, never watched the films but always wanted to!

[Jason]

1 hour ago, Bigglo145 said:

Ahh thanks, never watched the films but always wanted to!

 

The first film is incredible and holds up REALLY well.

 

The second and third, not so much. Wouldn't be in a mad rush to watch them. Doesn't sound like the new film is all that either sadly.

[Mexicola9302]

It's possible to play the tech demo on PC now too, it's a simple one click installer.

 

https://drive.google.com/u/0/uc?id=1eQ_Oav8pxMJ-55qwwyRurjS_dyKgFGqZ&export=download

 

18 GB large.

Edited June 1 by Mexicola9302

[Tacymist]

On 12/22/2021 at 6:42 PM, Bigglo145 said:

Ahh thanks, never watched the films but always wanted to!

 

I'm about 6 months late with this but yeah, first film's pretty sweet. I thought the second one was really fun to watch as well. I don't remember the third one much, but I recommend the first two

[Mexicola9302]

I tested this demo yesterday for like an hour, i was able to set everything to epic quality not ultra with DLSS quality it worked pretty well in 2160p. Was just fooling around, flying around with the camera looking into appartment windows, looking at pedestrians, how the traffic behaved, the dmg model of the cars etc. it's fun doing that one time. Another 10 years and gaming really looks like reality, it's creepy if you think about it.

 

But the police sirens are annoying af, i just turned off my sound at some point.

 

So many games are being devoloped atm that use this engine, i can't wait to play State of Decay 3, or the newest Witcher or Tomb Raider. These games must look so awesome.