Visit Venice in photoreal 3D in this free Unreal Engine 5 tech demo

Unreal Engine 5 has been a revolution for game design, and for film and animation too. Even Quentin Tarantino recently used the platform to complete his Kill Bill Lost Chapter, which will hit cinemas this weekend.

A big part of the appeal of Epic Games' software is the ability to create graphics that verge on the photorealistic. This can be particularly powerful when paired with photogrammetry, as demonstrated in a new Unreal Engine 5.7 tech demo from a 3D specialist (also see our guide to the best photogrammetry software).

[Unreal Engine 5.7 Demo] Venice - 4k Walkthrough - YouTube

Watch On

We looked at a previous Unreal Engine demo from Scans Factory just over a year ago. The 3D studio's latest shows how much both the software and its own technique has developed further in the 12 months that have passed since then.

The demo allows us to explore a recreation of Venice made using more than 500 assets, including modular buildings and bridges based on scans. There are day, sunset and overcast lighting scenarios, allowing use to explore narrow streets, canals and bridges in different conditions.

Some of the most notable upgrades include the way the light reflects on windows, and the lighting in general, in fact. There are also now people in some of the scenes, although this still looks very empty compared to the Venice I know!

Scans Factory notes that all of the shots in the video above are live gameplay. It used a Nvidia RTX 4090 in 4K (see our guide of the best graphics cards for video editing) with NVIDIA Recording.

The flythrough was rendered with MRQ. Here, the studio says the main issue was controlling the lighting after the Lumen update.

The studio is inviting feedback, and, as ever, the results have already sparked some debate, particularly regarding that lighting. “People don't have windows in their houses, they have mirrors. You're standing in the shadows, looking at the houses that are lit by the sun, and you're blinded - what nonsense is this?” one person writes.

Scans Factory says it's adding a small system for the windows that will use a parallax effect to makes it look like there’s light inside and gives a sense of depth as the camera moves. It will be possible to apply this to individual windows and control the brightness.

You can download the demo for free (donations welcome) from Scans Factory's Gumroad site or find the full package on the Fab store.

For a very different demonstration of Epic's software, see the gorgeous new Unreal Engine 5 Zelda remake from RwanLink.