294 Unreal Engine Progress

Shin was browsing the KiShin website, and in the forum, he saw the surging discussions of "Metal Gear Solid I". He saw the praise of the users.

Seta Yori: "Amazing! The latest video game of KiShin has improved in graphics so much!"

Machida Tadao: "Yeah, the 'Metal Gear Solid I' will be my favorite game. I played it for two days straight in my dorm!"

KiShin_Damao: "I have to admit, the game is beyond any game released this year. There is no competition at all, except for a few, in just my opinion, just like the video game called 'Uprising' from Namco."

Reading the comments of the KiShin users about the latest video game "Metal Gear Solid I", Shin smiled faintly.

If Shin had merely stuck to replicating the graphics and elements of the video game "Metal Gear Solid I" from his previous life, the graphics wouldn't have received as much praise as they do now.

With Shin providing guidance, the KiShin video game developers utilized the Unreal Engine to create "Metal Gear Solid I," incorporating valuable data from video game entertainment companies and Tora-Suzuki. The game development software underwent significant improvement, impressing even Shin, though it still fell short of his previous life's Unreal Engine. Nevertheless, the current KiShin Unreal Engine is remarkably advanced, even surpassing the standards of 1995.

As a result, "Metal Gear Solid I" boasted superior graphics and gameplay compared to its counterpart in Shin's previous life. In that iteration, the game suffered from low-resolution textures leading to muddy visuals, especially at a distance. Additionally, the environment lacked detail and interactivity, even when compared to the pre-rendered backgrounds of Shin's previous life Resident Evil 1.

In Shin's previous life, the video game "Metal Gear Solid I" faced issues such as frame rate drops during intense action sequences, limited lighting, and effects.

However, most of these concerns were successfully addressed in the version of "Metal Gear Solid I" improved by KiShin in this parallel world.

Utilizing KiShin's video game development toolkits and the advanced Unreal Engine, Shin guided the improvement process. The low-resolution textures were upgraded to high-resolution ones, instantly enhancing the visual fidelity of the game and bringing out details in environments, characters, and objects, creating a more immersive and impressive world.

Furthermore, the addition of bump maps and normal maps further enhanced textures, adding depth and detail to surfaces like skin, clothing, and metal. KiShin also made significant improvements to the lighting and effects, addressing and surpassing the limitations faced by the previous version in Shin's previous life.

Indeed, if KiShin were not concerned about the hardware capabilities of KS1, they could have further enhanced the video game using the technologies implemented in the Unreal Engine.

Under Shin's guidance, KiShin's Unreal Engine incorporated PBR, or physically-based rendering. This advanced computer graphics technique strives to replicate how light interacts with real-world materials in a physically accurate manner. Instead of relying on artist-defined light and material properties, PBR utilizes mathematical models based on real-world physics to determine how light bounces off and interacts with surfaces. The result is more realistic, dynamic, and visually stunning materials in games and other computer-generated imagery.

PBR proves to be an excellent and useful computer graphics technique, significantly contributing to defining the physical objects and lighting in computer animation, thereby making it more realistic. For instance, PBR excels in precisely defining the materials used in the virtual environment.

PBR defines materials through specific properties such as roughness, metallicness, albedo (base color), and emissivity (light emission). These properties play a crucial role in influencing how light interacts with the surface, giving rise to effects like diffuse reflection, specular highlights, and subsurface scattering.

Moreover, PBR extends its impact to lighting and effects. Rather than merely introducing light sources, PBR takes into account environmental factors like ambient light, direct lighting, and indirect bounces. This approach results in a more nuanced and realistic lighting environment that dynamically interacts with materials, enhancing the overall visual experience.

This computer graphics technique was initially researched in the early '80s, but KiShin, guided by Shin, enhanced the PBR technique and integrated it into the Unreal Engine.

Honestly, if possible, KiShin could have utilized PBR for their video games. Unfortunately, KS1's hardware wasn't powerful enough to handle the complex calculations required for real-time PBR. The computational demands of accurately simulating light interactions with materials would have resulted in unacceptable frame rate drops and gameplay stutters.

Moreover, implementing PBR for video games would have been considerably more time-consuming. Despite this limitation, KiShin can still apply PBR to their animation and movie projects requiring computer-generated imagery. Currently, the technologies implemented in the Unreal Engine are being utilized to develop the CGI needed for KiShin Pictures' Spiderman film project.

With the latest technologies and features in Unreal Engine, it is evident that the CGI used in the Spiderman film project will surpass the quality of CGI seen in Mortal Kombat and Jurassic Park.