Dense geometry alone can't make a game look next gen, as is obvious from all the UE5 games released so far, their massive flaws in indirect lighting, shadowing and reflections destroys the appearance of next gen (as was obvious in games such as Immortals of Aveum, Lords of the Fallen, Talos Principle 2, Layers of Fear and many others).
These games are full of light leaks, screen space relfections, screen space bounce lighting, light boiling and lack of indrect lighting all together. This doesn't mesh well with the expected next gen look.
The irony is that Epic is continuously improving RT support and performance in their engine
Currently UE5 offers 5 levels of ray tracing.
Software Lumen: basic RT with all the above issues.
Hardware Lumen: more accurate non screen space reflections (though aliased and poorly shaded with less detailed materials and shadows). Emissive lights become non screen space (with far better light coverage).
Hardware Lumen with Hit Lighting: more precise non aliased reflections and properly shaded, also use proper materials and shadows.
RTXDI: direct lights and emissives are done with ray tracing for more accurate and stable light coverage, every light source also casts shadows.
Path Tracing: all the benefits of RTXDI plus vastly improved indirect lighting and is near perfect, reflections are perfect and caustics are added.
Besides consoles aren’t targeting only UE5 games
Even within UE5, games are varying their approach, Many UE5 games don't use the full set, some don't use Nanite, some don't use Lumen or Virtual Shadows, some don't use any of the new features at all, there is a great inconsistency here from UE5 titles, the spectrum is large and no one can can target a specific variable.
Also the best possible performance is often achieved with a combination of the three big features (Nanite, Lumen, Virtual Shadows), so sometimes developers will sacrifice some or all of them to obtain a certain visuals/performance ratio.
ispatchGraph API call!
