Unreal Engine 5: You’ve never seen water so realistically in games

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was released for the Nintendo 64 in 1998. It was later released for the GameCube in 2003 and four years later for the Wii. In 2011, Ocarina of Time 3D was followed by an offshoot for the 3DS. On Metacritic, action-adventure scores a full 99, with a user rating of 9.1. For this reason, many consider Ocarina of Time the best offshoot of the series and even the best game of all time.

YouTuber CryZENx is probably included in this group as well. Already rebuilt Ocarina of Time in Unreal Engine 4. Meanwhile it ported parts of it to the brand new Unreal Engine 5. We’re often talking about incredibly stylish graphics at this point.

Water can now look very realistic

However, in this case, the appearance as a whole is not the deciding factor, although the bounce is quite significant compared to the original versions. The exciting thing about the video below is the water effects and water physics – see for yourself:

Representing water physically accurately is no easy task. Imagine how even the smallest currents and surf affect countless water molecules. There are about 3.37 x 1025 water molecules in a single liter of water, or in other words: 33.7 quadrillion. Then there are refractions and reflections.

It is therefore practically impossible to calculate the motion of all molecules, so any calculation by an engine or simulation is only a rough estimate. The fact that Unreal Engine 5 managed this so well in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is even more surprising, if not perfect, of course.

Water in simulations and other games

Special simulations of water in motion give even better results. Take a look at this video. However, games or game engines must include many more aspects and above all calculate them in real time.