Deluxe Reissue of Scott Weiland’s 12 Bar Blues Announced, “Barbarella” Demo Released: Stream - Consequence

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The late Scott Weiland’s solo debut, 12 Bar Blues, turns 25 on Friday (March 31st). In honor of the milestone, Rhino will release remastered and expanded versions of the album this spring.

12 Bar Blues will get its vinyl debut on Record Store Day (April 22nd), as a limited edition 2-LP set. It will be limited to 7,500 copies on 180-gram translucent blue and green vinyl and available only at select independent music retailers for $34.98. The package will feature the original album with newly remastered audio, as well as three previously unreleased recordings: an acoustic demo of “Barbarella” and session outtakes of “Lazy Divey” and “Chateau Mars.” The latter two songs were on the original promotional version of the album but not included with the commercial release.

Following the Record Store Day release, on May 12th, Rhino will release a deluxe version of 12 Bar Blues featuring more unreleased music. This collection, available digitally, will offer the newly remastered original album, the unreleased tracks from the vinyl release and five more previously unreleased recordings.

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In advance of the releases, Rhino has unveiled the previously unreleased demo version of “Barbarella,” along with a 4K edition of the original track’s music video.

Weiland co-produced 12 Bar Blues with Blair Lamb and performed a plethora of instruments on the album, including guitar, bass, keyboards and drum loops. The Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver frontman also created the album’s design concept, which pays tribute to the 1958 John Coltrane album Blue Train.

Listen to the previously unreleased demo of “Barbarella” and watch the 4K music video for the original track below. Also, view the 12 Bar Blues track list and album artwork.

12 Bar Blues Artwork:

Scott Weiland -12 Bar Blues

12 Bar Blues Tracklist:

2-LP Edition:

Side One:
Desperation #5
Barbarella
About Nothing
Where’s The Man

Side Two:
Divider
Cool Kids
The Date
Son

Side Three:
Jimmy Was A Stimulator
Lady, Your Roof Brings Me Down
Mockingbird Girl
Opposite Octave Reaction
Side Four:

Side Four:
Barbarella – Acoustic Version *
Lazy Divey *
Chateau Mars *

* = previously unreleased

Deluxe Digital Edition:
01. Desperation #5
02. Barbarella
03. About Nothing
04. Where’s The Man
05. Divider
06. Cool Kids
07. The Date
08. Son
09. Jimmy Was A Stimulator
10. Lady, Your Roof Brings Me Down
11. Mockingbird Girl
12. Opposite Octave Reaction
13. Barbarella – Acoustic Version *
14. Lazy Divey *
15. Chateau Mars *
16. Barbarella – Daniel Lanois Mix *
17. Cool Kiss – Daniel Lanois Mix *
18. Lady Your Roof Brings Me Down – Daniel Lanois Mix *
19. Barbarella – Demo Version *
20. Desperation #5 – Demo Version *

* = previously unreleased

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Jimmy Page shares Led Zeppelin demo which became 'The Rain Song' - NME

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Jimmy Page has shared a previously unreleased Led Zeppelin instrumental demo, ‘The Seasons’.

The track, which you can listen to below, eventually formed the basis of ‘The Rain Song’ from the band’s 1973 album ‘Houses Of The Holy’.

Explaining how the track arose, Page wrote a message that accompanied the song on YouTube: “My original idea for the opening tracks for ‘Houses Of The Holy’ was that a short overture would be a rousing instrumental introduction with layered electric guitars that would segue in to ‘The Seasons’, later to be titled ‘The Rain Song’. Again there would be a contrasting acoustic guitar instrumental movement with melotron that could lead to the first vocal of the album and the first verse of the song.

“‘The Seasons’ was a memo to myself as a reminder of the sequence of the song and various ideas I’d had for it in its embryonic stage. I’d worked on it over one evening at home. During the routining of the overture now titled ‘The Plumpton And Worcester Races’, the half time section was born and the overture shaped in to the song, ‘The Song Remains The Same’. These rehearsals were done in Puddle Town on the River Piddle in Dorset, UK.”

He continued: “The first set of recordings were done at Olympic Studios with George Chkiantz. We then came to record at Stargroves, Sir Mick Jagger’s country home, and, like Headley Grange, with the Rolling Stones recording truck.

“‘The Song Remains The Same’ was played on a Fender 12 string, the same one used on Becks Bolero, with my trusty Les Paul number 1 on overdubs in a standard turning. ‘The Rain Song’ was an unorthodox tuning on acoustic and electric guitars. On live shows, it became a work-out feature for the double neck.”

In a previous interview with Classic Rock, Page had mentioned a demo of ‘The Rain Song’.

“I had a home demo of ‘The Rain Song’, but unfortunately the tapes have been lost. Which is a real bastard,” he said at the time. “I literally had the full piece from beginning to end. I had the Mellotron idea and everything on it.”

Page is yet to confirm whether or not the newly uploaded demo is the lost version he was referring to previously.

Meanwhile, the legendary Zeppelin guitarist previously said he was working on “multiple projects”, and confirmed that he had turned down working on Ozzy Osbourne‘s last album ‘Patient Number 9’.

Elsewhere, Nicole Scherzinger recently covered Celine Dion‘s ‘My Heart Will Go On’ in the style of Led Zeppelin on the second series of That’s My Jam.

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Judge halts unauthorized demo of Troy building, orders owner to install supports - WHIO

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TROY — A Troy judge has ruled to halt the demolition of the historical building that was partially knocked down without approval Wednesday.

A hearing was held Wednesday afternoon about the property located at 112-118 W. Main Street.

At the hearing, Chief Building Officer Rob England testified that the building, in its current condition, remained “unsafe” and had structural issues that “could result in collapse.” England had no opinion if the building was in “imminent danger of collapse,” according to court records filed late Wednesday night.

>> PHOTOS: Troy property owner starts demo without city approval

Since there wasn’t an imminent risk, Miami County Common Pleas Court Judge Stacy Wall ordered the building owner “shore up the busted header and sagging bricks on the south wall.” Wall ruled that the owner has until Friday at noon to do so.

The property owner was also ordered to place all debris on-site in

“We will be monitoring compliance with Judge Wall’s orders, which we believe are in the best interest of the community at this time. We will also be completing our own structural engineering analysis in anticipation of the Tuesday, April 4 court hearing on the City’s injunction against the property owner,” Troy Mayor Robin Oda said in a post to the City of Troy’s Facebook page.

News Center 7 reported Wednesday that the building owner got a work crew to start demolition around 3 a.m.

Julie McMiller, the secretary of a nonprofit called the Troy Historical Preservation Alliance (THPA), to Mike Campbell that her organization had been fighting the proposed demolition for three years.

“It has a very high historic significance. It was our third courthouse for the county and it has huge significance for the black community,” McMiller said.

THPA claimed one of the three interconnected buildings helped liberated slaves get paperwork documenting them as free individuals.

>> PREVIOUS COVERAGE: ‘Flagrant attempt to bypass the law;’ Troy property owner starts demo on building without approval

A new owner bought the building in 2018 and planned to demolish it after it was damaged by a tornado in 2020. He was granted permission by the city’s Zoning Commission and then the Board of Zoning Appeals.

“They voted four to three in both of those forums to tear the building down, to allow the demolition to go forward and we took it to court in Miami County and we won,” McMiller said.

The building owner appealed that decision and the THPA won the case less than a week ago in the Second District Court of Appeals in Montgomery County, but the owner believed he had permission from Miami County and the city to take the building down after it was storm-damaged again over the weekend.

Patrick Titterington, Troy’s Director of Public Services and Safety, said he made it “quite clear” that the owner didn’t have approval to start the construction. He said he learned of the early-morning demolition work and walked over to the site, giving workers an oral stop work order. The owner ignored it until the city’s law director obtained the injunction.

“There was some miscommunication or misinterpretation or difference of opinion,” Titterington said.

McMiller called the owner’s action to tear down the building without authorization a “flagrant attempt to bypass the law and take down one of the most historic buildings in downtown Troy.”

Image 1 of 16

W. Main Street Demo (Mike Campbell/Staff)

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Jimmy Page unearths lost Led Zeppelin demo, The Seasons – the acoustic guitar arrangement that became The Rain ... - Guitar World

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Jimmy Page has shared a previously unreleased track created during the sessions for Led Zeppelin’s 1974 record Houses Of The Holy. Dubbed The Seasons, it’s an instrumental arrangement that eventually formed the basis for The Rain Song.

“My original idea for the opening tracks for Houses of the Holy was that a short overture would be a rousing instrumental introduction with layered electric guitars that would segue in to The Season, later to be titled The Rain Song,” explains Page in his post. 

“Again there would be a contrasting acoustic guitar instrumental movement with melotron that could lead to the first vocal of the album and the first verse of the song.  The Seasons was a memo to myself as a reminder of the sequence of the song and various ideas I’d had for it in its embryonic stage.”

Page put the song together in the evening at home using his multitrack recorder. He says a separate overture – then-titled The Plumpton and Worcester Races – later fulfilled his aim for the rousing (if not instrumental) introduction the band finally settled on in The Song Remains The Same.

“The first set of recordings were done at Olympic Studios with George Chkiantz,” notes Page of the production. “We then came to record at Stargroves, Sir Mick Jagger’s country home, and, like Headley Grange, [where we recorded parts of multiple albums, we used] the Rolling Stones recording truck.

“The Song Remains The Same was played on a Fender 12 string, the same one used on Beck's Bolero, with my trusty Les Paul number 1 on overdubs in a standard turning. The Rain Song was an unorthodox tuning on acoustic and electric guitars.  On live shows, it became a work-out feature for the double neck.”

Page’s “unorthodox” tuning on The Rain Song is thought to be DGCGCD, and the new arrangement is a superb acoustic guitar showcase. Indeed, it works so beautifully as an instrumental that you almost wish Plant had left it alone in the first place.  

Page had previously mentioned his home demo of The Rain Song in a 2014 interview with Louder’s Paul Elliot (opens in new tab), around the Deluxe Reissue of Houses Of The Holy.

“I had a home demo of The Rain Song (from Houses Of The Holy), but unfortunately the tapes have been lost. Which is a real bastard,” stated the guitarist. “I literally had the full piece from beginning to end. I had the Mellotron idea and everything on it.”

The Led Zeppelin icon has not explicitly stated whether or not the newly uploaded demo is the lost version he was referring to in that statement, but it certainly fits the description to a tee.

It’s been a good time for Led Zeppelin guitar fans lately, particularly as a new clip of Page talking through his most iconic Led Zeppelin guitar gear has recently surfaced online.

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Watch Jimmy Page demo his most iconic guitar gear, including his Les Paul, the Telecaster that “built Led Zeppelin I ... - Guitar World

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Jimmy Page was one of several rock icons invited to share their instruments as part of The Metropolitan Museum of Art's 2019 exhibition, Play It Loud: Instruments of Rock & Roll. Now, footage of the Led Zeppelin guitarist demonstrating some of his most iconic electric guitars and guitar amps has surfaced online.

The clip was initially recorded to explain the displayed instruments and their key sounds. The new video was filmed at the exhibit by a fan, so it's a little wobbly in terms of the A/V quality. However, it’s worth hanging in there to see Page discuss a mouth-watering collection of iconic Led Zeppelin equipment, including his Gibson Les Paul 'Burst, Fender Telecaster and modded Supro Coronado. 

He kicks things off with the Telecaster that started his musical career.

(Image credit: Jorgen Angel / Getty)

“This is the guitar that goes through from The Yardbirds to the first album with Led Zeppelin. I love this guitar,” says Page, seemingly chuckling at the memories it gives him. "This guitar was given to me by Jeff Beck during the time that he was in The Yardbirds.” 

Page has previously said that he “built Led Zeppelin I around the Fender Telecaster.” It was the instrument he immediately turned to when he got the call to join The Yardbirds from his friend Beck, who had made the cut some time before. It stayed with him from then on, and was later repainted.

“And then we come to the amplifier,” continues Page in the new clip. The amp in question is a thoroughly battered and heavily-modded Supro Coronado – a build he later reissued in 2019 as the extremely limited edition "Sundragon" combo.

“It interacted really well with this Telecaster,” continues Page. “And the whole of that first album [Led Zeppelin I] is done with this guitar, this amplifier, the wah wah pedal and the overdrive.”

Again, Page doesn’t name check his pedals, but a Solar Tone Bender MkII overdrive and a Vox King wah are visible at his feet. Elsewhere in the background, you can see a Vox UL4120 amp head, a Rickenbacker Transonic cabinet, two Marshall JMP Super Lead heads, and Page’s custom ‘Zoso’ cabinet.

Page then introduces the Gibson Les Paul ‘Burst he purchased from Joe Walsh in 1970 – the instrument that would come to forever be associated with him. Page bought the guitar off Walsh when the Eagles/James Gang man dropped in on Led Zeppelin’s show at the Fillmore East in New York. 

As the band landed bigger gigs, Page struggled with the feedback from the Tele’s single coils and was looking for a solution, and he found it in the Les Paul’s humbucking pickups – initially with a black Custom and then with that famous ‘Burst.

(Image credit: Chris Walter / Getty)

“Joe Walsh came along [to our show],” says Page in the clip. “He had a Les Paul and he said, ‘Use it! Just play it.’ I said, ‘What? In the show tonight?’ He said, ‘Yeah! Play it in the show tonight!’ And it was just a real dream to be playing this guitar. I never looked back from that point. It’s brought me a lot of luck… I think the Marshall [came along because it] was always known to interact so well with the Les Paul Standard.”

Later, he introduces another electric guitar synonymous with his Led Zeppelin career: the double neck Gibson EDS-1275 he used to perform Stairway To Heaven onstage. 

“Why the double neck?” asks Page. “On Stairway I'd employed an acoustic guitar at the beginning of it and then two separate electric 12 strings on each channel and I thought, ‘How am I going to approach this number [live?] [The double neck was the solution and] it became a real sort of working tool in the band and it also became really iconic.”

What’s particularly touching about the clip is Page’s enduring love for the instrument that brought him his success.

“I think the guitar chose me,” he posits at the end of the short video. “I managed to make my passion my hobby and my hobby into my livelihood, as such. [But I’m] like all the other guitarists who are in the exhibition, you know? Everyone's story will have a common denominator through it – their love and passion for playing the guitar.”

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WWE SmackDown Viewership Dips On 3/24, Demo Also Down - Yahoo Entertainment

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WWE SmackDown Results

WWE SmackDown viewership dropped on March 24.

According to Wrestlenomics, 2.219 million viewers tuned in, which is down from last week, when 2.258 million viewers watched the show.

In the 18 to 49 demographic, SmackDown scored a 0.58 rating, which is slightly down from the 0.59 rating the March 17 episode drew in the same demographic.

Per Wrestlenomics, the viewership number for the March 24 episode of SmackDown was the show’s lowest of 2022; coverage of the Elite Eight in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament proved to be stiff competition.

This week’s episode featured a singles match between Cody Rhodes and Ludwig Kaiser. In the main event, Kevin Owens hosted the “KO Show”, and Sami Zayn was his special guest. Elsewhere on the show, Rey Mysterio battled LA Knight.

The post WWE SmackDown Viewership Dips On 3/24, Demo Also Down appeared first on Wrestlezone.

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Vincent Lade's Stealth Survival Horror Game 'Jawbreaker' Coming Later This Year; Demo Available Now [Trailer] - Bloody Disgusting

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Stealth Survival Horror is headed your way with Vincent Lade’s Jawbreaker. Not to be confused with the Darren Stein film, the game is inspired by the likes of Outlast, Alien Isolation and Resident Evil. Jawbreaker already has a demo available on Steam and itch.io, with a release date of Q4 2023.

Jawbreaker takes place in the alternate future of 2028, where after an economic collapse in the United States results in the “Awakening”, where the average person is driven to join any armed group that will have them in order to fight for supplies and territory. You play as one such member of a gang in New Citadel City. Supplies are running low in your bunker, and you’ve volunteered to venture out into the concrete ruins of the city to loot for anything to bring back. During your expedition, an untouched police station catches your eye. Breaking into the station, you soon find out why the police station was left untouched, and why you’re now fighting for your life.

According to Vincent, Jawbreaker combines the oppressive atmosphere of Outlast with the stealth and combat of Alien Isolation and the puzzles and inventory management of Resident Evil. The result has you relying on stealth tactics such as throwing objects to distract and hiding in lockers or under tables to survive. You won’t be completely helpless, as you have a few weapons at your disposal. However, the use of guns may draw unwanted attention. Jawbreaker will also have multiple endings to “prove if you are a true survivor”.

Along with the demo, be sure to keep an eye out for Steam Next Fest in June, where Jawbreaker will be a participant.

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Watch Jimmy Page demo some of the most iconic guitars and amps in Led Zeppelin history - MusicRadar

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In April 2019, The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City hosted an exhibition in collaboration with the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame that brought together some of the most famous and culturally significant electric guitars and amplifiers in the history of rock. 

The exhibit, Play It Loud: Instruments of Rock & Roll, ran for six months and featured the rigs of rock’s greatest players. Some 130 instruments were on display. Among them were many from Jimmy Page’s collection.

The Led Zeppelin guitarist spoke at The Met's preview event, but he also shot a gear demo video that has just surfaced online, and is essential viewing for any Led Zeppelin gear nut. 

Here we have the core components of Page’s rig as it evolved from the early days, the transition from the Yardbirds to Led Zeppelin I, up to the Physical Graffiti era. There is the backline of a Vox UL4120 guitar amp head and Rickenbacker Transonic cabinet, his Marshall JMP Super Leads, the 4x12 speaker cabinet with ‘Zoso’ grill cloth, the Tone Bender MkII and the Vox 95-932011 King Vox-Wah pedal, and more. 

But of course, he has to start with his Fender Telecaster, aka the Dragon Telecaster that Jeff Beck gave to Page after pulling up in a sports car outside his house and causing a commotion, that Fender reissued in 2020.

“I love this guitar!” says Page. All these years on and he is barely able to contain his delight at how it sounds through that old modded Supro combo; a combination that formed the basis of his guitar tone on Led Zeppelin I. Page says the Supro and the Tele got on like a house on fire.

“The whole of that first album is done with this guitar, this amplifier, a wah-wah pedal and the overdrive [Tone Bender MkII],” he says. In 2019, the Sundragon, a forensic reproduction of that Coronado was released.

Jimmy Page pictured with the Sundragon, a replica of the modded Supro Coronado that he used on Led Zeppelin I and on Joe Cocker's I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends. It was unveiled at NAMM 2019 (Image credit: Sundragon)

There is a lovely grace note here as Page hits a note and bends it by bending this Tele’s neck, which is of course something all Tele players do, something Page has done a million times – and with more oomph – but nonetheless it’s a heart-in-mouth moment when you consider the historical significance of the guitar. 

For many, that Telecaster is the ür-guitar of the Jimmy Page legend, rivalled only by the 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard that he acquired from Joe Walsh, then of James Gang, in 1969. Page says the introduction was as simple as Walsh insisting he should play it that night. 

“He had a Les Paul and he said, ‘Use it. Just play it!’” Page recalls. “I said, ‘What, in the show tonight?’ And he said, ‘Yeah, in the show tonight.”

The rest is history. It became Page’s number one, the singlecut that brought the thunder to Immigrant Song and more, and one that paired particularly well with amps such as the Marshall JMP Super Lead. It became a totem. An Excalibur for a band whose sound and aesthetic had more than a touch of the Arthurian legend to it.

“It was just a real dream to be playing this guitar,” says Page. “I never looked back from that point, really. It’s brought me a lot of luck.”

So, too, did the violin bow. Not only did it give photographers such as Koh Hasebe and Michael Putland an image that would become iconic in the annals of rock photography, it gave Page a different dynamic than just pick and fingers. He was always straining at the leash to pull guitar forward. Here we get a demonstration of the bow and a backstory that explains how Page arrived at the Yardbirds and Led Zeppelin with a feel for the instrument that was far evolved from what his peers were doing. 

All those hours cutting tracks on the clock as a session player, borrowing a bow from a violinist and seeing what sounds could come out. Speaking of weird sounds, we get a demonstration of the theremin that was deployed for avant-garde weirdness in the Whole Lotta Love mid-section, but what’s really cool about this is that he uses his famous #3 1969 Deluxe Goldtop that was refinished in Cardinal Red, rerouted for humbucking pickups, and later modded with a Parsons/White B-Bender. 

Sadly, Page doesn’t talk about the guitar, though it is nice to see it in action. But it can’t be a Page rig tour with no mention of a double-neck EDS-1275, without which Stairway To Heaven would have been a song greatly diminished in live performances. Again, as with the bow, this would not only give Page the particular sound he needed but would become an indelible image from Led Zeppelin’s pomp. 

It was the only option for Page looking to recreate the sound of an acoustic guitar in one channel with a pair of electric 12-string guitars panned left and right. 

“It needed to have all these voices of the 12-string and the six-string,” he says. “It became a real sort of working tool in the band and it also became really iconic.”

Other highlights? Well, how about Page playing the opening riff to Kashmir on his legendary black-and-white Danelectro #3021 parked in DADGAD tuning. It doesn't get much cooler. Plus it's also reassuring that the Dano 59 DC is still in production, still awesome, and is an electric guitar you can pick up for under 500 bucks (opens in new tab).

Check out Page's rig tour from The Met at the top of the page.

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Epic made a Rivian R1T demo to show off its latest Unreal Engine 5 tools - Engadget

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In 2020, Epic Games publicly demoed Unreal Engine 5 for the first time. Nearly three years later, gamers are still waiting for the tech to go mainstream. Outside of Fortnite and The Matrix Awakens, there aren’t any UE5 games you can play right now, and the first salvo probably won’t arrive until the end of the year at the earliest. None of that stopped Epic from showcasing the engine’s latest capabilities with a handful of new demos during its recent State of Unreal keynote at GDC 2023.

Arguably the most impressive one saw Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 developer Ninja Theory show off Epic’s new MetaHuman Animator. The tool promises to make realistic facial capture accessible to indie developers by allowing them to use an iPhone, instead of dedicated equipment, to capture facial performances. As you can see from the two demos Epic shared, the tool makes it possible to quickly and accurately transform a closeup video of an actor into something a studio can use in-game. Epic said the animator would launch this summer.

Separately, Epic showed off some of the enhancements coming to Unreal Engine 5.2 with a demo that featured, of all things, a digital recreation of Rivian’s R1T electric truck. The EV turned out to be the perfect showcase for UE 5’s new Substrate shading system. The technology allows artists to create different shading models and layer them as they see fit. In the demo, Epic gave the R1T an opal body to show how Substrate can allow different material layers to interact with one another without creating lighting artifacts. The demo was also a showcase for Epic’s new set of Procedural Content Generation tools. They allow artists to create expansive, highly detailed levels from a small set of hand-crafted assets.

If all goes according to plan, it won’t be much longer before the first slate of Unreal Engine 5 games arrive. Provided it’s not delayed again, Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl is slated to release this year. Lords of the Fallen and Black Myth: Wukong, two other UE5 projects, don’t have a release date yet but have been in development for a few years now.

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Watch Epic Games' Mind-Blowing Unreal Engine 5.2 Photorealistic Tech Demo - Hot Hardware

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At this stage, we probably don't need to tell an audience of technology enthusiasts that Unreal Engine is capable of mind-blowing photorealistic visuals. Indeed, that's really not even what Epic's demo at GDC was all about. Unreal Engine has reached its 5.2-nd version, and with this latest release comes two very important technologies: the Substrate material framework as well as a suite of procedural content generation tools.

The demo opens with a rich foliage scene lit by the sun. A common joke among graphics programmers, when another developer is revealing their brand-new graphics technology, is to say "yeah, but does it work on foliage?" Natural environments are the hardest to render, and that's why Epic is showing it off here. Unreal Engine's Nanite virtual geometry system did not work with foliage initially, but updates since its launch have improved that capability to the point that plants can deform and move in response to stimulus in the game world.

Epic says this truck is physically simulated down to the individual suspension components.

The demo centers on a Rivian electric truck that moves through the natural rainforest environment. Epic says that all of the physics interactions here are realistically-modeled down to individual rocks that tumble under the truck's tires as well as advanced water simulation. The truck itself was apparently provided to Epic by Rivian itself, and the model supposedly features 71 million polygons, which Epic was able to slap right into the game environment thanks to Nanite's virtualized geometry.

The Rivian truck primarily serves as a demonstration for the new Substrate material framework. This is essentially a modification of Unreal Engine's existing material system such that it can now simulate multiple layered materials, even on the same surface.

It looks cooler in motion, we promise.

The presenters change the painted metal surface of the Rivian's body to a material that simulates an opal gemstone, complete with sub-surface refractions that change realistically as the camera moves around. It's an impressive demo, especially when the presenters re-apply the mud layer on top of the gemstone. It all looks shockingly realistic throughout.

Moving ahead, the Rivian travels under a fallen log, and then we see a small, muddy open area; this is the beginning of the more impressive part of the demo. The presenter states that only a small part of the environment was hand-crafted; an area about 200x200 meters. The rest of the environment, including everything past the fallen log, was apparently procedurally-generated based on the hand-crafted zone.

Change the scene from left to right in one second by dragging a prefab asset in.

Given the advancements in all kinds of AI over just the last few months, this sort of thing probably shouldn't be as impressive as it is, but seeing it all in action is pretty unreal—no pun intended. The presenters drop a prefab crag structure into the environment and the whole thing rejiggers itself automagically to add log bridges for the upper area and to look natural below. Moving the prefab causes Unreal Engine to fill in the gaps with realistic puddles of water, small rocks, and light foliage.

Top: carefully crafted jungle area. Bottom: procedural expansion.

The full area of the demo, including the small hand-crafted portion, apparently extends out by about four kilometers in either direction. That's pretty crazy considering how little of the scene was hand-crafted, and how diverse the environment is. If it were just copy-pasting the bespoke parts, that would be one thing, but that doesn't look to be the case; it all looks really organic.

This kind of technology, in combination with generative AIs, could really accelerate game development. That's a good thing in a world where the biggest games are costing more than even the biggest movies. It's very difficult to be profitable when your game costs hundreds of millions of dollars to make, but looks like this sort of thing could put the latest graphics tech in the hands of even indie developers.

If you're an Unreal Engine game dev and looking to get your hands on these new tools, you apparently don't have to wait at all. The presenters said that Unreal Engine 5.2 Preview is available right now.

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