Dear Fellow Scholars, this is Two Minute Papers with Dr. Károly Zsolnai-Fehér.
Today we are going to see how Unreal Engine 5.2, a popular game development
platform puts up a clinic on simulations. Now, I am sure you are asking, okay Doctor,
but what kind of simulations? And the answer is that here is every single thing that you
can possibly imagine is simulated. This is going to be real good. In a previous episode,
we saw how it can recreate real people and put them into virtual environments.
And today, first, we are going to have a look at this…yes, it can simulate how all this beautiful
foliage would look like in reality. These are not perfect renderings, reality looks a
little different, however, they are extremely convincing, and oh my… they run in real time.
So, the apperance is being simulated here. Then, since all this runs in real time,
we can grab a controller, jump into this virtual electric vehicle, we can control it,
so the movement of the vehicle is simulated, and, look! It also interacts with the environment
beautifully. That is also simulated. So much so that even the interaction of the suspension with
the environment is computed as well. And here comes the Two Minute Papers special,
simulating interaction with fluids. Yummy, I absolutely love this. And it even simulates
how this interaction would sound in reality. Even the compression and deformation of the
tires is simulated. Something that was possible through this earlier paper from NVIDIA. 2 years
ago this was a paper, and now it is right there in a product that we can use right now. Incredible.
And since this is a virtual world, the rules of the real world don’t apply. Only our rules. So,
let’s refinish this car with a beautiful opal material. Oh my goodness. Look at those
specular interactions, my eyes are popping out of my head they look so good. This is a
type of material where multiple layers, and even iridescence is simulated. Now add some dirt to it.
And, look. Tire deformation too. And all this in real time? Pinch me. What a time to be alive!
And when we drive, even the hand movement on the wheel is shown. Now, we keep driving a bit longer
and…something happened. Did you catch it? Look again. Something big happened.
Do you see it? Well, up until this point, artists created this environment by hand,
but from this point on, the entire environment is generated procedurally, in other words,
nearly completely automatically. Look. We can add to it so easily. And if you
don’t like this new part here, just grab it and move it. Like that. Wow.
Now, in games like Fortnite, they are using their new rendering system, called Lumen. Which is
capable of computing global illumination in real time. That is … I don’t even know what to say.
Global illumination means an intricate simulation of light where even indirect illumination can
appear. This is the bleeding effect of light as it bounces through multiple diffuse surfaces and is a
beautiful phenomenon in nature, but unfortunately, less so in many virtual worlds, because it is so
slow and expensive to compute. But here, whenever environment changes, its effect is now computed
properly. And not just the direct effect of the light that you see here, but the indirect effect,
in other words, how it bounces around in the scene. This also changes. Fantastic.
And this means that whenever a wall is destroyed, the lighting of the
whole scene changes. Once again, not just direct illumination, but indirect illumination as well.
And I hear you asking, okay Doctor, the geometry is quite simple here,
can it also shoulder more complex scenes? And the answer is, look here. This is a light transport
researcher’s dream. Just look at that. This used to take hours, if not days to compute,
and now, once again, real time. I cannot believe it. We now live in a time where we
can create little virtual worlds where the light of every single candle is computed convincingly.
I am so happy to see all of these amazing research works coming together in one place,
and in real time. Two Minute Papers exists because I want to draw your attention to human ingenuity.
I want to show you what can be done, and that you can do it too. And my goodness, isn’t this
an amazing celebration of human ingenuity. Bravo! My apologies for not being able to report on this
as quickly as the keynote came out, but there is just so much happening in the world of research,
there is so much I want to share with you, and fortunately, progress is so quick,
sometimes I don’t even know where to start. We have a ton more amazing works coming,
so if you liked this one, consider subscribing and hitting the bell icon to not miss them.
Thanks for watching and for your generous support, and I'll see you next time!