Unreal Engine 5 (Devs) question.

This video is a demo running live/natively on the PS5 and I was wondering if DCUO will eventually move to this game engine in the future?

Because of many limitations I see because our the current Unreal Engine 3 I do sometimes wonder what this game could be on something newer.

Will you devs move this game to Unreal Engine 5?

I would love to see this happen... but similar to what happened at my first employer when IBM finally broke the 16MB barrier with DOS/VSE to create VSE/ESA, there will have to be significant code rewrites from the ground up. At that time IBM provided help to its customers with converting code from DOS/VSE and the various flavors of MVS and VM to their ESA-compatible versions... except that my employer had some programs they ran that were so old they couldn't find the source code any more... so it required decompiling the binaries into System 370 Assembler to be followed with appropriate upgrades... once they figured out exactly what the program was doing.

I suspect that any attempt to upgrade to a newer version of Unreal Engine will involve a similar process... which obviously would be easier if they have all of the source code. The catch with this is that you also need a team of people dedicated just to doing this and ensuring that the new development being done meets some kind of standard necessary for the new version as well. It is by no means a small undertaking, unless somehow the folks at Unreal have made the newer engines 100% backwards compatible.

its called dcuo 2.0....can anyone honestly suggest diehard dc fans will be happy finding out all their dcuo box money went to develop an AVENGERS game!!? devs have already said some are working on a next gen game...I have no details but I would still bet it would be dc related...doesn't have to be called dcuo of course

I agree. It's one of those processes where it's extremely hard to do at first but the reward of doing so is well worth it. We could probably finally get another power visual upgrade, environment improvements, style textures, less latency issues because of hiccups. DCUO is the only game (that I play) that still uses the Unreal Engine 3 and I only have these hand full of issues on it compared to the other games I play. They are hitting a wall at this point and trying to squeeze as much out of it as they can.

It might really come down to them seeing the benefits from even making a decision to change game engines in the first place. Having the PS5 be such a powerhouse would be very disheartening if we still had the same lag, graphics and etc when it gets transferred over.

At that point we would all realize something is wrong and want to know what the excuse would be that time. I remember when some older devs used to say the PS3 was the limiting factor of why this game was being held back so the PS4 dropped...and it was the same issues we had on the PS3 aside from the extremely slow level loading. Everything else was exactly the same.

I just don't want anymore excuses for why this game is so out of date.

One of the new (still unreleased) superhero games upgraded their engine from one point release of Unreal Engine 4 to the latest. That took roughly 3 months, I think. So, 3 months to update minor versions, using a vanilla engine. DCUO's running on a highly customized version of the Unreal Engine 3. There's no way that you could do a straightforward port, and even if you could, I suspect that a lot of annoyances would remain.
IIRC, Warframe uses an even older, custom engine, and they're doing OK. (They also have a lot more exciting bugs than DCUO does, so it's a mixed blessing.)

I'm not arguing that it should not be done... I'm only trying to show the scope of what needs to be done in order to make this change. I don't think people will sit for having them put new DLC development on hold in order to do what's necessary to execute the change.... and based on what Swamarian says, if they really are running a custom version of Unreal Engine 3 then the likelihood is that those same or similar customizations will need to be applied to Unreal Engine 5. In general you are probably looking at an entire year's worth of work between the folks at Unreal and the folks at Dimensional Ink... and that assumes that Dimensional Ink is willing to hire a separate team dedicated just to the upgrade process. Of course at some point they may not have a choice to delay it any longer because Unreal may no longer support Unreal Engine 3, including custom versions. I somehow don't believe they will let it come to that, though.

https://forums.daybreakgames.com/dcuo/index.php?threads/pc-revamp-update-needed.308873/

Dont expect this 10 years old game to be upgraded to UE4 or UE5. You are welcome.

Unless you or someone with deep pockets is willing to invest the money required to build DCUO from scratch while keeping the company afloat as it does it, this is will be nothing more than a pipe dream. It has been stated time and time again that DCUO will not be ported over to any new engine. It isn't a simple task of dumping the code into a super-computer and that computer converting the game to the new engine.

What's required to port over to a newer engine is writing every piece of code from scratch as if you were creating the game in the first place. It took 2-3 years to build this in the first place, and a budget of 50-million (if I read that correctly back then). If you hadn't noticed, they have let people go...and are working with a much smaller crew. That's because this company is trying to make as much profit with as little expenditures as they can. It's just not going to happen. And every thread where this comes up, everyone who failed to read previous threads like this will be reminded that this is not going to happen.

Was just a matter of time before someone made this thread. Want Unreal 5 ? Hope that DI are building their new MMO on it.

I certainly hope that, if they do go about using the U5 engine, DCUO2 doesn't end up looking like that. Don't get me wrong, the demo is pretty but I don't know if that works for a superhero game.

Personally, I'm a firm believer that superhero games need to have a little bit of stylisation to them. MUA3 on the Switch looks better to me than the new Avengers game, from an aesthetic standpoint. Realism always brings about complaints regarding faces, hair textures etc etc. I feel like DCUO struck a really nice artistic appearance reminiscent of some good comic artists a la Jason Fabok. It needs to keep it and modify it a little, but not too much.

On the other hand...I do want a Wonder Woman game that looks like that demo so I am a little biased.

Now, if they were to do a straightforward port, it'd go a lot faster and be a lot cheaper. All of the art assets could (probably) be reused, and a lot of the work for the original game was the design (early versions of the game were a lot different), which would be reused. And once that's done (and it'd probably still take at least a year, and a huge chunk of change), you'd end up with a game that plays largely the same. I bet that if DI did pull the trigger and do a straight port, at the end people would be complaining that it was a waste of money, and the time should have been spent on new content and powers.

Don't other big MMOs when they release new campaigns just make a whole new game but sell memberships as having all access to content? I'm not sure if Dimensional Ink/Daybreak could make DCUO 2 with Unreal 5 and just have Legendary members get access to both servers for Episodes wouldn't that solve that problem?

Y’all don’t buy enough time capsules or level enough artifacts for this too happen lol

I know I do my part in spending on a game I love

mmorpg games, devs did move from unreal engine 3 to 4.
Don't know the reason why the devs can't move it to unreal engine 4.
It is work to do. DCUO is likely the only game still on Unreal engine 3.
Other nmo games were upgraded to unreal engine 4.
So it looks like they just may need to work on it actively. It's alot of work. But what does hard work do? Gets us good things. More tools and more many things on Unreal engine 4.
There's no consequences for taking the risks. There's consequences for not taking the risks.
The consequences is player base.
Unreal Engine 4 just may be what it is to save dcuo.
To be able to much more things.
It's a lot of work and need a lot of money. Investments is tough.
If they open up donations. That might help.
Devs could ask DC for donation or a deal instead of investment.
Making investments always been tough.
If I could make a deal with DCUO and give them 1 million and I just want 5 thousand a month until 250k is totaled. I have a good heart. Many many business loaners and personal investors out there that devs can work out. Anything so they can get the money to get it ok unreal engine 4.
Investing is something that is complicated and really gets to ppl and if anything seems off and lose a bit. They get stressed.
Id start with a small deal where I get back something each month
I don't know. Investing is complicated and is a bad time since COVID.
There is always other solutions. There are rich ppl that would make a deal. Ask 100 or personal investors and deal contractors and a few will do it.
Like myself. All they gotta do is ask.
Do I have a million? Well, no, I spend money. I help ppl. Alot. I spent 100k on helping 2 person in 2 years time.
I don't spend money on anything. A cheap house and bills. And I don't eat food much. Meal replacements couple times a day and something light couple times a day.
Saves alot of money. Just thought for bills and food for a month.
And I help people. Alot. ALOT.
I call it Tithing. It's not me that Provides, It's him. In me. Many people don't people and maybe devs don't believe. But they can always just ask.
So I say to dcuo devs. It's okay to ask. I'm in Houston. I would love to donate here and there.

They barely have enough staff maintaining the existing game. You want them putting resources towards a brand new game?

It has been said by Unreal Engine that the transition from UE3 to UE5 is not possible UE3 was not designed to do this.
The managers of the Unreal Engine themselves have said that UE3 was not designed to do this.

The only way to have DCUO 2 would be to remake a new game from scratch knowing that player accounts can't be transferred to the new game, unless they find a solution, but that's unlikely as it's not in the plans.

It took them years to give us a PS5 Client.... and even then it is Broken and still no word on when they will fix it.

Do you really expect them to be able to transfer DCUO on UE5??

Also...... it would be expensive.... and it was said that there would be no major investments made on DCUO.

They cancelled the LotRO Remaster when they realized it would cost $30M.

Odds are changing DCUO from UE3 to UE5 would probably be even more expensive then the $30M for the LotRO Remaster.

Not going to happen.
Sorry.