Epic Games in partnership with Warner Bros. He released a technical demo of Unreal Engine 5 set in the universe of The Matrix. The Matrix Awakens game should show what the new engine can do and is only available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S and X.

Matrix Awakens should not be seen as a full game, but as an interactive tech demo that will give users a taste of Unreal Engine 5. Show starts With part of the first Matrix movie, but recreated in the engine. Hypothetical versions of Keanu Reeves appear as Neo and Carrie-Anne Moss as Trinity in the presentation. These UE5 cinema scenes are swapped and combined with images from cinema movies.

Later, the technology demo becomes interactive and players take on the role of I.O., a character who previously appeared in epic videos. Like IO, players must blast other cars filled with agents in the form of a railroad shooter. Although the explosions are similar, Epic confirms it Car accident Calculated in real time by the Chaos Physics system, part of UE5.

After the railway games sector, players can roam around the city freely. This city has more than 260 kilometers of roads, 512 kilometers of sidewalks and 45,073 parked cars. Only 38,146 of these cars can be driven by IO. Furthermore, the city has 1,248 intersections, 27,848 lights, 12,422 manhole covers, and seven million Granted assets, each made up of millions of polygons and seven thousand buildings. The total area of ​​the city is 16 square kilometres.

Epic says The Matrix Awakens was made by a “relatively small team,” without giving a number. Despite the team’s “limited” size, Epic says staff were able to create a technical demonstration thanks to procedural tools within the engine, including SideFX’s Houdini. Since the engine can handle this tool, Epic says small studios can create big open-world games, introducing rules into Unreal Engine 5 like how big roads should be, or how tall buildings can be.

In the technical demo, players can also choose some Layers On and off, so that, for example, a visualization of how Mass AI that regulates traffic works. Another example is that they can switch between day and night to Dynamic global lighting and reflectionsCavitation system is in operation. This part of the engine uses real-time ray tracing to simulate lighting. Players can also enable a layer that controls file playback virtual engineeringThe nanite system can be seen.

epic He tells Eurogamer That the project, including all assets, would be sent to Unreal Engine 5 users, “to experience as they wish.” the engine It is nu als early access And the full release should be next year. Matrix Awakens released for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series only; Nothing is known about a possible PC version.