EA and Bioware’s next entry in the Mass Effect action role-playing game series, Mass Effect 4, may be using MetaHuman in Unreal Engine 5 for the creation of photo-realistic digital character models.
A tweet from Michael Gamble, Project Director / Executive Producer at Bioware, suggests that the studio may be using the MetaHuman feature available in Unreal Engine 5 for the creation of rigged digital character models to use in Mass Effect 4.
Epic Games Character and Technology Director, Chris Evans, took to Twitter to ask whether there was anyone creating games using MetaHumans in Unreal Engine 5, and what challenges they would like the engine maker to tackle in future releases. In particular, he was looking for specific issues stopping people from using MetaHumans in runtime and games, such as the performance cost associated with hair rendering, LOD, and draw calls etc.
Gamble responded to Evans’ tweet in a somewhat cryptic manner by sharing a GIF image of a somewhat spiteful Salarian, possibly suggesting that MetaHuman isn’t able to create models for their character race. Technically, the Unreal Engine 5 feature should be able to create characters belonging to the human, Asari, and Quarian race. Given their non-human looking appearance, Salarians, Turians, and other races would probably not be a good fit for MetaHuman.
Another game that is said to be taking advantage of Unreal Engine 5’s MetaHuman is The Initiative’s Perfect Dark. According to the LinkedIn profile of Tyler Thornock, Principal Technical Animator at The Initiative, the development team is taking advantage of Unreal Engine 5’s MetaHuman technology to create realistic-looking character faces for the game.
Previously, it was revealed during a recent episode of The Xbox Two by co-host Jez Corden that, as per his sources, the next Mass Effect game will drop the open world design of Mass Effect: Andromeda in favor of a return to the classic format. Though, he admitted that he didn’t know if the information was 100% accurate, but added that the rumor had been making the rounds in the industry.
