Mass Effect 4 Could Be Using New Technology to Create Characters in the Game

Summary

The nextMass Effectgame could be using an exciting technology to create characters in Unreal Engine 5. It’s no secret that the most recent game in the franchise,Mass Effect: Andromeda, veered away from Unreal Engine in favor of EA’s Frostbite 3. That choice led to a variety of controversies.Mass Effect 4will be utilizing Unreal Engine 5, a major step forward in graphics potential. Now BioWare is hinting at some of the Unreal Engine 5 features it might be using forMass Effect 4.

In 2021,Epic Games first revealed its MetaHuman Creatortechnology. At the time, the MetaHuman Creator was a browser-based app that was made to help developers speed up the process of creating 3D digital humans. In the years since Epic Games has iterated on its MetaHumans technology to be more robust and easier to use in game development. Most recently, Epic released MetaHuman Animator which helps to make facial animations using devices like an iPhone 12.

A recent Twitter post shared by Epic’s character technology creator Chris Evans asked if developers are making a game using MetaHumans in Unreal Engine 5. One of the responses was from BioWare’s Michael Gamble, who is also the project director for the nextMass Effect. The implication is thatBioWare is using Unreal Engine 5’s MetaHumans tech to create highly detailed models and animations for its cast of sci-fi characters.

The question that Gamble was responding to wasn’t just which studios were using MetaHumans, however. Evans also asked, “What are some challenges you would like us to tackle in future releases?” Gamble responded with a GIF of a Salarian, one ofMass Effect’s most recognizable alien races. Gamble appears to be asking Epic to consider implementing functionality for non-human species.

Gamble does bring up a compelling point. InMass Effect, there are a significant number of human characters. MetaHumans can be used to create incredibly diverse and highly detailed human faces. But if MetaHumans can’t be used similarly for alien faces, that means BioWare has to construct all of its aliens using different technologies. While BioWare’s artists are very likely up to the task, it must be time-consuming and difficult.

It has been over 11 years since the release ofMass Effect 3, which was built in Unreal Engine 3. It’ll have been well over a decadeby the timeMass Effect 4launches. It’s exciting to consider how big of a step forward BioWare will have made in that time span. MetaHumans will hopefully meanMass Effect 4features its most diverse cast of characters yet, aliens included.