EPIC Games Shows Off Unreal Engine 4.23 Physics, Destruction System "Chaos" at GDC 2019

[Raevenlord]

Not all news coming from EPIC covers its EPIC Games Store - though according to the relative attention they've been garnering with the constant scooping up of PC timed exclusives, perhaps it should. This piece of news, alas, covers the company's unreal Engine, which has been one of the hallmarks in games development for a while now, being used for a number of disparate games such as the gears of War games, or even a relatively obscure, Xbox 360 exclusive title, Lost Odyssey. At GDC 2019, EPIC showcased version 4.23 of its Unreal Engine, with particular attention to its improved destruction and physics engine, which they've aptly named "Chaos".

The demo EPIC games used to showcase their new Chaos physics and destruction engine is set in the world of Robo Recall, their FPS VR title, and for good effect. The focus here is on high-quality, cinematic visuals with little work being leftover for coders, as artists can simply render their chosen architectures and expect them to behave with correct physical qualities upon destruction. It is eerily reminiscent of Microsoft's Crackdown 3 physics reveal, though, which supposedly used the power of the cloud - a facet of the game that was toned down considerably for its eventual release.

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[Space Lynx]

looks pretty good, still needs some fine tuning. im still sad games from the 90s had great environment destruction and nowadays its virtually nonexistant, very bizarre how that happened

 

[eidairaman1]

CHAOS UT

 

[Fluffmeister]

Looks good, and frankly it reminds me we need more Mech games. Shogo Mobile Armor Division was fab!

 

[ZoneDymo]

guess im the only one so far that thinks its just looks cheap? or fake?

idk is this really physics? I mean I guess so but you just have a basic building skeleton and let the "meat" drop off, without it really impacting structural integrety or so.

At this point I feel an older game like red faction guerrilla had far more impressive physics.

 

[EatingDirt]

guess im the only one so far that things its just looks cheap? or fake?

idk is this really physics? I mean I guess so but you just have a basic building skeleton and let the "meat" drop off, without it really impacting structural integrety or so.

At this point I feel an older game like red faction guerrilla had far more impressive physics.

Red Faction Gurerrilla was an extreme exception to building destruction. What other games have building destruction besides RFG & Battlefield?

I'm absolutely sick of seeing FPS's with big huge explosive weapons hitting wooden buildings and doing jack all to them.

I for one welcome this, and it's taken far, far too long to implement building destruction physics in UE(Battlefield Bad Company 2 had it almost 10 years ago).

 

[Octavean]

Looks good to me,......

The demo was based on or situated in the Roborecall game. One of my favorite VR games. No way something like the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive can display resolution high enough for the visuals of this type of physics destruction to matter. Maybe some of the newer HMDs but not the older ones.

 

[kastriot]

It's better than only decals on the walls we see on majority of games.

 

[fynxer]

Yeahhh, that's what i'am talking about, REAL DESTRUCTION. NOT that fake half ass destruction like in BF V.

DICE and some other devs seems to wanna fake it as much as possible these days making destruction more and more dull and simplified.

They boost about Frostbite destruction like it is second coming of Jesus, i don't feel it, it gotten plastered on with fake effects and I don't feel like it's real destruction.

In a few years Frostbite engine will have become second rate thanks to EA, they are too cheap to keep developing the engine at a pace that will keep the competition at arms length.

EPIC on the other hand is pushing their engine to the limit continuously and adds new and amazing things every other month.

 

[Caring1]

It's better than only decals on the walls we see on majority of games.

But that is subliminal advertising, probably paid for.

 

[BorgOvermind]

CHAOS UT

For who does not know: Chaos UT was actually a mod for good old UT99.


Too bad nothing's happening to UT4. It's been years and it's still on experimental stage.

 

[Franzen4Real]

Looks good, and frankly it reminds me we need more Mech games. Shogo Mobile Armor Division was fab!

Shogo! Now there's a blast from the past, I loved that game.

Looks good to me,......

The demo was based on or situated in the Roborecall game. One of my favorite VR games. No way something like the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive can display resolution high enough for the visuals of this type of physics destruction to matter. Maybe some of the newer HMDs but not the older ones.

True, but I would still love to see them release at least a short demo like they did with BulletTrain to show off how this looks in VR. The clouds of dust and smoke, and chunks of building fall towards you would still be pretty intense even on a current HMD.

Yeahhh, that's what i'am talking about, REAL DESTRUCTION. NOT that fake half ass destruction like in BF V.

My first thought as well once the video started rolling. BF5 destruction is kinda lame.

 

[Vayra86]

guess im the only one so far that thinks its just looks cheap? or fake?

idk is this really physics? I mean I guess so but you just have a basic building skeleton and let the "meat" drop off, without it really impacting structural integrety or so.

At this point I feel an older game like red faction guerrilla had far more impressive physics.

Guerilla was also very limited in scope. If you've played the game you will recognize that all structures look the same, use the same 'building blocks' really internally. What they do there is build a game around a physics engine, instead of using a physics engine in a game. Almost everything is tied to it in a way; think about how the nano gun operates for example. Doesn't make it less cool, but you can see how it can limit a developer in how a game concept works.

This game however, I really liked the physics here, and they really do influence the game too. Some things like buildings collapsing is very basic, but this game has inertia physics, and object mass and weight is simulated. Its really true that old games made much more and better use of it.

 

[vega22]

Untill I get to play with the preview build I am only guessing but it looks like they just really optimised the apex destruction which has been in the engine since the early days.

Apex has always been good but unless you had really high end pc it would turn your buttery smooth game into a slideshow.

It still looks very cosmetic to me eyes. To do anything more would require a game being built from the ground up and not just icing over the top of solid mesh work.

 

[Prima.Vera]

Yes, we need more Red Faction type of distruction in the new games. But this looks even better due to ammount of particles. Guess a powerful GPU is needed for that too.