Unreal Engine 5.5 Tech Demo Offers Glimpse Into a Futuristic Cyberpunk Metropolis

An innovative tech demo, powered by Unreal Engine 5.5.3, immerses viewers in a futuristic cyberpunk city. Created by artist Sciontidesign, this project draws inspiration from the Samaritan UE3 demo, the Blade Runner franchise, and the overall aesthetic of Cyberpunk 2077. Showcased on high-end hardware—an NVIDIA RTX 5090 GPU, AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D CPU, and 32GB of DDR5 RAM (6000MHz)—the demo relies entirely on dynamic lighting. This showcases Nanite with Distance Field Meshes and Ambient Occlusion, combined with Screen Space Reflections. The absence of advanced features like Lumen, Path Tracing, RTX, DLSS, or baked lighting highlights UE5's capabilities even without its most sophisticated tools.

The rain effect, while somewhat artificial, renders impressively detailed wet surfaces, adding depth to the city's environment. However, frequent invisible walls unfortunately detract from the immersive experience. While Unreal Engine 5 tech demos consistently boast stunning visuals, games built on the engine often face performance challenges in real-world applications.