If you think games look realistic now, then wait until you catch a load of what Epic Games has got in the works with its Unreal Engine. Prepare to have your mind blown.
Epic Games Unveils New MetaHumans
You’re probably wondering what an earth we’re talking about. MetaHuman Creator is the latest feature Epic Games has added to Unreal Engine; a software development environment, which game developers can use to create their titles.
According to an Unreal Engine blog post announcing the exciting new development tool:
MetaHuman Creator is a cloud-streamed app designed to take real-time digital human creation from weeks or months to less than an hour, without compromising on quality.
So, it is essentially a way for games developer to create incredibly realistic human facsimiles. Fast.
What Does MetaHuman Creator Mean for Developers?
The implications this has for software development are game changing (pun intended). Imagine how quickly developers will populate their game worlds with NPCs, using MetaHuman Creator. Not only that, but the digital humans look incredible, too.
This also will obviously mean that developers can finish titles off quicker, so you don’t have to wait through countless delays. MetaHuman Creator allows devs to get their NPC population built quickly, leaving time for other, more pressing, matters.
But why the need for this tool? Epic Games explains:
Creating one high-quality digital human is difficult and time-consuming. Scaling that effort to create many diverse digital humans of the quality required by next-gen platforms and high-end virtual production is a formidable task indeed.
So, as we said; the tool saves time and improves workflow, allowing developers to give the new-gen consoles the games they deserve.
How Will MetaHuman Creator Affect Games?
Well, thanks to MetaHuman Creator, games might see release a lot quicker, for a start. With powerful tools like this at their disposal, developers could hone game mechanics or spend more time actually fixing bugs before they release a broken game…
Anyway, bitterness aside, Epic’s development tool seems like something that will make games look better, too. You only have to look at the renders to see how breathtaking the digital humans actually are. When we see them in games, though, is when the real magic will happen.
When Will We See MetaHumans in Games?
That is hard to say. Currently, Epic has pegged the Creator software for early access testing in the “next few months”. So you won’t be seeing any MetaHumans any time soon.
If you fancy having a go at creating your own digital human, you must wait if you want to use Unreal Engine’s MetaHuman Creator. You could always try putting one together in another program, but it certainly won’t take under an hour!