We all remember Superman’s most famous quote: To infinity, and much further!
No wait, that was wrong. It is of course: With great power comes great responsibility!
That was it. Or not? Oh yes, now we remember, it is: I am Batman!
We know more about Unreal Engine 5 than we do about superheroes. Here, Alex explains what the newly released version has to offer in terms of innovations and what that means for future games:
Unreal Engine 5 is here!
Are next-gen graphics coming to games now?
Today we have a special Easter treat for you: Instead of watching a boring trailer, you can now test the Unreal Engine 5 in the wild on your system.
A new tech demo allows you to fly through a big city as Superman and make your PC sweat. In this guide you can find out whether this is fun and how you can get the demo running on your system.
This is in the Superman tech demo
Who is responsible for that? The creator of the tech demo is called Tyson Butler-Boschma and is the founder of the developer studio Toybox Games, which is currently working on the action-adventure game Primordials: Fireborn.
How did the project come about? Tyson states that he created the demo out of a purely private interest in what an open-world superhero game based on Unreal Engine 5 could look like. So don’t expect extensive gameplay and also expect bugs: According to his own statement, he hasn’t put much time into his little gimmick.
What is the tech demo based on? If the city where Superman is up to mischief looks familiar to you, there is a simple reason: the map comes from the official epic demo The Matrix Awakens, which we have also presented to you in detail:
The Matrix Awakens
This is what the future of open world games looks like
We had so much fun with the tech demo
It shouldn’t come as a surprise to you, but we’ll say it straight out of the box: this tech demo is just a fun experience. After ten minutes we’ve seen everything, tried everything and broken the sound barrier five times. Meanwhile, we always had a grin on our faces, because the short flight lesson is always fun.
Above all, it makes us dream of a real Superman game. From the first second it feels like we’re about to be equipped with a quest and ready to play. At least since Insomniacs Marvel’s Spider-Man
You can see a few impressions from our trip to the tech demo in the gallery below, and there is also a corresponding video at the end of the article.
Superman in Unreal Engine 5 – Check out screenshots from the lovely tech demo
This is how you install the tech demo on your system
If you want to get your own idea and get started as soon as possible, that’s no problem. In just a few steps, the gimmick lands on your computer:
What are the system requirements? Unfortunately quite high. As already mentioned, Tyson Butler-Boschma hasn’t put any time into optimizations, and of course the Unreal Engine 5 has certain inherent requirements that need to be met. The following hardware is recommended:
- 12-core processor with 3.4 GHz
- 64 GB RAM
- Geforce RTX 2080 / Radeon RX 6700 with 8 GB video memory
If your computer doesn’t fully meet the requirements, that’s not a problem. You can breathe a sigh of relief, especially when it comes to working memory. We played the demo with 16 GB of RAM and therefore had to put up with strong reloading stutters, especially at the beginning. After a few seconds, however, the performance improved significantly and then remained at a constantly tolerable level.
Your PC is not big enough at the back and front? Especially for such cases, we recorded our time as the strongest reporter in the universe on video for you, although not without stutters:
1:39
Be Superman once? This tech demo will make your wish come true!
Here’s how to get the tech demo running:
- Load yourselves die Techdemo down (direct link).
Warning: the download is included 17.7 GB quite big. - Extract the archive to a location of your choice.
- A setup is not necessary. Start the demo simply by double-clicking on the file
CitySample.exe
. - After the start you have the choice between a smaller map, which is particularly suitable for weaker systems, and the complete map from The Matrix Awakens.
We hope you enjoy trying out the demo! If you are interested in which games are currently officially in development with Unreal Engine 5, we recommend that you take a look at our large overview. And if you’re interested in more tech demos of the new engine, you can watch 9 impressive videos here.