Making Unreal, Real

When I think back to when I started gaming graphics weren't just a non-factor, they weren't really even talked about.

Those old Spectrum 48k graphics were utilitarian at best, just to give you a great example here is the visual majesty of Horace Goes Skiing, starring the eponymous Horace the... well, I have never and probably will never understand what dear Horace is, but he did find himself in an interesting collection of activities...

Obviously those didn't stay for too long and I've had some jaw dropping moments over the years, Gran Turismo's Deep Forest Racetrack with its cliffside track, the first appearance of the T-Rex in the original Tomb Raider and more recently the sunset over the Ocean in GTA V are just a few, something I've been known to just stop and take photos of.

So, why this meandering trip down memory lane? Well, it's because I've just been to Paris in a YouTube video, only despite what your eyes might try to tell you, this entire apartment de Francais was created using the new Unreal 4 Engine, so just bear in mind as you start watching that all of this is wireframes, textures and clever coding... then just forget all of that and delight in the journey.

Now just tell me you wouldn't be happy to just wander around that apartment all day until you needed a nap in this bed?

Obviously a demo is a lot different from a game and it might be a while before we see graphics like that in a real game due not only to size restrictions but also performance as I doubt that would look quite so smooth with an invading zombie apocalypse or gang battle sapping the fps but... just wow.

I think we can say for certain, that in the coming years we're going to see one of two things... stunning looking games that are indistinguishable from reality, or the Matrix.

Oh, and finally... just for comparison here's some rendering done with the very first Unreal Engine, developed in the late 90s and first used in, unsurprisingly, Unreal in 1998.

Which leads me to a final thought, back in 98 that was absolutely astounding, so what will gaming look like in another 17 years?