Dune: Awakening is being promoted as one of the most important showcases of the capabilities of Unreal Engine 5, as it offers cutting-edge visuals.
Dune: Awakening was one of the biggest topics at the State of Unreal conference at GDC 2024. Epic and Funcom presented the game, based on the books by Frank Herbert, as well as the films of Denis Villeneuve, as the best demonstration of Unreal Engine 5.
Epic boasted that when creating the film “Dune 2”, the authors made extensive use of the Unreal Engine during the pre-production stage. The new video also introduces Dune: Awakening. Starting from the 3rd minute, developers praise the Nanite technology built into Unreal Engine 5, which allows you to achieve extremely smooth transitions of object complexity on different planes (LOD) – the effect is significantly superior to similar old solutions.
The authors of Dune: Awakening also talked about the use of Fluid Ninja technology, which simulates the “liquid” sand of Arrakis, shifting and deforming under the character’s feet (an example of a solution in the fourth minute). Finally, the game will feature global illumination thanks to Lumen technology.
When Dune: Awakening will be released is still unknown.