For Unreal Engine enthusiasts, modders, etc, Unreal Engine 5 has just been released in early access.
Preview video:
Jump to specific features below and learn more about Unreal Engine 5 Early Access and the “Valley of the Ancient” sample project at unrealengine.com/UE5
Imagine a Conan Exiles map built with this new version of Unreal Engine.
Have fun.
Just for info, I’ve tried the demo and it works incredibly well on lower specs than the minimum recommended which is:
12-core CPU at 3.4 GHz
32 GB of system RAM
GeForce GTX 1080 / AMD RX Vega 64
I’ve tried the demo Valley of the ancient on:
Intel(R) Core™ i7-7700K CPU @ 4.20GHz
16.0 GB DDR5 4000mhz
Asus Nvidia Geforce GTX 1060 6gb
and I’ve gotten around 15-20 fps in play mode, and 30 fps in developer mode which is unreal how well optimized the new engine version is.
As a comparison, the specs I just posted would freeze ocasionally at 26 million polygons rendered in a single scene, whereas the demo will make your pc render 16 billion polygons with 25-30 fps.
Do note that this demo is a stress test and a Conan Exiles dev kit, if one will be available in the future, will run much smoother.
For now, UE5 is not recommended for production, as it’s in early access. You can still use it to familiarize yourself with the new features and the UI.
I know mate. Super excited… just sad that FC has said they won’t migrate Conan up.
I would have loved to see FC set up a good Revision Control and Production Pipeline like Epic has on Fortnite so they can pump out content and update the engine underneath the game (like how Fortnite is always using the latest version of UE4). Unfortunately, FC has clearly stated that Conan Will stay in version 4.15, unless they change their mind. This is a crying shame, cuz I’d love to see what the Conan art team could do with that much geometry.
You never know. Funcom won’t be able to say no to UE5 forever. The technology is out there, makes no sense not to use it.
I agree, but supposedly they have a lot of custom code that would be a pain to migrate.
I remain optimistic, but they’ll have to change their mind. I’m sure that Dune will be running on UE5 tho.
Such a huge jump, from one engine to an other whole new version of the engine will mostly result in complete reprogramming the game. So, I highly doubt, that Funcom will upgrade the engine to Unreal 5. Maybe an upgrade to the last UE4 stable might occour, but to UE5… I guess that is just, well … unreal.
Next to no chance at a Conan Exiles migration to UE5. As has already been long discussed, Conan uses a very heavily modified 4.15. It would be a challenge to move up from there as it is, let alone a UE5 (plus I believe Scott and Dennis have already out this one to bed).
A Dune or other future UE projects? That’s likely at least on the table.
The way I see it, a 3rd map can be made from scratch as a different project and launch it from the server browser. The game logic/game code can exist very well within the level bluprint and doesn’t need to be shared with the other maps. I suspect that this is happening to some degree already with Exiled lands and Isle of Siptah, as the differences are quite visible both in graphics and performance.
Another way, but maybe further into the future would be to simply remake the entire game in UE5. The game design is already there and many of the assets can be reused/repolished. This would take at most 2 years.
I have an almost identical test setup with slower memory and bus. What are your Superposition scores at 1080p? I’d be interested in testing on this rig, but I’d like to know how it stacks up to yours objectively before committing to the download.
You can see the FPS top right corner.
This is the starter position. If you experience fps loss, you can disable some graphic options, or hide some level components from the grid and show only parts of the landscape.
In gameplay mode you will get lower fps, but it will work. You might also get some out of ram errors if you have 16GB like me, but these will only freeze your display for half a second and these only happen during gameplay. At least, that’s what I experienced.
Well, sorta like keeping a steam engine rather than switching to diesel. A train can operate both ways… but one is just so much better. Everything else they have on the table for CE should be back-burnered while they knock out the engine update. (At the proper time/after it launches) It’s clearly fantastic. Adapt, or die. CE does not have to decay. It can be updated, and with a new engine, plenty of additional assets and features could be added. What else do you pay devs for?! Yea, it would be work, but it would also get you a huge boost to player numbers. Add a nice DLC to go with it.
Why would Funcom elect to stay on version4? Is it because it’s not possible to upgrade from version 4 to 5?
How long before Engine version 4 becomes obsolete or no longer supported? Like if version 6 arrives in the future, then surely version 4 will no longer be supported, right? Are Funcom thinking about Conan Exiles with a view to seeing it continue or end in the near future?
It will be similar to what’s happening with console versions. The new version will be on everyone’s wishlist while the old version will still be there but don’t expect it to perform miracles like the new version does.
Doesn’t work that way in game development. New engine version rarely means an existing, especially established game, also upgrades.
Mass Effect devs thought about updating from UE3 to UE4 for the legendary edition. They quickly decided against it on the realization that literally everything would need to be redone from scratch.
Funcom uses a very heavily modified UE4 4.1.5. It’s not like a press of a button and poof, you’re updated. You are talking months and months and months and months and tens of thousands of development hours, all to update to a newer version. Meanwhile, nothing else would be released for the game during the process. You think this community would be cool waiting a year with no updates of any kind? (The answer is no, no they wouldn’t).
Ok thanks for the reply. I didn’t know that. Let’s hope engine 4 keeps on chugging!!
How many GB of game assets are you willing to download? (given they improve the quality to UE5 standards).
The demo is a stress test and in no way an actual video game. It was supposed to be over 15tb in size due it’s high detail assets but all the data was reduced to 100gb using what I suspect to be mesh instancing, geometry images and texture atlasses.
Standard industry video games will be lower than this. We already have video games like The division 2 which is 85Gb and has millions of assets compressed. Although it uses SnowDrop engine made by Ubisoft, it’s no doubt using the same 20th century technology. 
(
In less than 5 years from now a 250Gb ssd will cost 10 euro and there already is 1Gb internet for only 8 euro in some parts of the world. These things will become standard soon and we will replace the Megabyte with Gigabyte just as we replaced Kilobyte with Megabyte 15 years ago. 
In short, I downloaded 100Gb in 23 minutes and it hardly takes space on my PC. I don’t mean to brag, but my point is, by the time they make a game with UE5, this will be the standard for everyday gamer.
