With the slogan "Make something Unreal", Epic Games' flagship product, Unreal Engine, has certainly proven its brand mantra. Whether it be interactive experiences such as Fortnite and Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time or visual effects in television, including sci-fi hits like Westworld and The Mandalorian, Unreal Engine is making dreams a reality no matter the medium.

Pushing the bounds of interactivity, graphical fidelity, visual effects, and even storytelling, Unreal Engine is the warp-drive of future content creation. These concepts, and many more, are the ways in which Unreal is both literally and figuratively forgoing a new landscape in media, wherein the FX department reigns supreme.

Making Reality Of The Mandalorian & Westworld

Via Epic Games

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Star Wars is as synonymous with gaming as it is with film, with classics like Knights of the Old Republic, Force Unleashed, and the most recent Jedi: Fallen Order. Yet, for Disney's breakout The Mandalorian, the first live-action Star Wars television show of its kind, video game engine Unreal came to the rescue by bringing its vision to life - each pixel channeled in real-time via "four synchronized PCs".

Unreal Engine allowed showrunners to bring the universe of Star Wars to life like never before, not to mention far faster and easier than without it. VFX is, of course, a major part of the experience, but it's also the user-friendly tools and various shortcuts that makes Unreal the contemporary tech of choice.

Westworld remains grounded in a more futuristic reality than the space-faring past of Star Wars. To ensure its third season accurately depicted its vision of 2058, Unreal Engine was utilized to showcase both thematic and visual presentations in the backdrop of Delos executive Charlotte Hale's neo-Los Angeles office. As the Westworld Unreal Engine spotlight reads:

"Hale’s office was designed to have imposing floor-to-ceiling windows that overlooked the main artery of the City of Arts and Sciences complex. Using the LED walls and Unreal Engine for real-time in-camera visual effects enabled the Westworld team to capture physically accurate lighting from the environment coming through the glass, with accurate reflections on the sleek interior furnishings – all with the right parallax as the camera moved throughout the scene."

This was particularly challenging, due largely to impediments with space and camera angles, thus requiring the Unreal Engine team to devise "a rotated render output feature for LED walls", specifically for optimization on the Westworld shoot. The tool itself was later added to the 4.25 iteration of Unreal, which exemplifies just how important broadening the scope of creation is to Epic Games. Every bit of iteration benefits future users of the tech.

Putting The "Live" In Opening Night Live

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Unreal doesn't simply stop at television or video games, as evidenced by its most recent showing at Gamescom Opening Night Live. Though not as technical or complex as what was done on The Mandalorian or Westworld, Unreal's aid in augmenting the stage under and around Geoff Keighley provided more production value in a world where blurry webcam footage has become the norm. Keighley even highlights to one fan how 3D texts and logos were also all rendered via Unreal Engine, making the show pop.

Niko Partners analyst Daniel Ahmad, replying to Keighley, notes how Unreal's usage goes well-beyond gaming, pointing at its interactive 3D implementation in the Weather Channel. Even the MLB turned to Unreal Engine for the crafting of virtual fans to fill in empty seats pockmarking stadiums. All of these concepts aren't new. Dating all the way back to 2015, Unreal Engine's Parisian home tour is proof enough in the multi-faceted ways Unreal can benefit various industries outside of games.

Unreal Engine 5 & The Future Of VFX Work

Via Epic Games

With Unreal Engine 5, Epic promises to bring "movie-quality" CG to games. The PS5 demo Epic showcased is only a tease of what to expect once it's in the hands of talented creators and mindful storytellers in 2021. Specific rendering proponents focusing on real-world lighting and shadows, called "Lumen," in addition to expanding micro polygon geometry with "Nanite", Unreal Engine 5 sounds more than a little promising for video games. Yet, when looking beyond that, it's clear VFX will never be the same again.

This is the core principle of Epic Games as a whole - pushing the bounds and broadening the scope of the tech industry. It's best related by VC and essayist Matthew Ball in his Epic Games Primer, wherein he says: "Sweeney’s goal, in other words, isn’t 'Embrace, Extend, and Extinguish', or even to drive Epic’s share of gaming profits. Instead, it’s to drive the industry topline itself". What better way to do that than with the powerhouse that is Unreal?

 

Epic Games still continues to make headlines for shaping the industry around itself, most recently with the now ongoing war between it and Apple. This move jeopardizes the use of Unreal Engine on iOS devices, even with a court-ordered mandate for its continued use on the Apple platform. While many may find it hard to believe that Epic's intentions are in the right place, the truth of the matter is that without Unreal available across platforms, how can it prosper and, thus, how can the industry? More open-platform ecosystems and wider channels for progress are needed in creating a better future for tech.

TV, video games, and other assorted content are only but a tiny portion of what Unreal can and will be utilized for going well beyond 2021. With its forthcoming fifth iteration on the near-horizon, the future is wide open.

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