Unity games are going to look way better, wetter, and wilder in 2023

Unity will be getting some exciting new graphical features including better lighting, water effects, faces and more. The best part? All of these are planned to come in 2023.

This was announced during a GDC talk today titled 'The Unity roadmap for games in 2023'. The talk laid out the immediate future for the engine, which is used to create a huge portion of video games today, and featured product manager for graphics Mathieu Muller, who spilled the beans.

Right up front, the packed room was told that Directx 12 was coming out of its preview stage with the 2022 LTS release in the spring (An LTS is basically a major update). Later on down the line ray tracing, the much-hyped rendering effect, will also be out of preview with the 23.1 LTS release. There is no specific release date for either LTS release, but they are coming soon.

Unity is also working on a new randergraphic system, which should apparently improve the performance of Unity games, however that's firmly still in the testing phase.

When it comes to VFX, future LTS releases will allow for better visual fidelity for smoke effects thanks to a six-way lighting system, so fog, explosions, etc could look a lot more realistic. The 23.1 LTS release will also pack screen space lens flares, which automatically generate lens flares of shiny objects and surfaces.

Then there's adaptive probe volumes - which in layman terms means that Unity can automatically place light sources into scenes. This not only makes the process of adding good looking lighting quicker, but should lead to better looking lighting in Unity games that use the tool.

This is all well and good, but what about some really cool stuff that you, the player, should really get excited for? Well, for one we're due some seriously improved water simulation in Unity games. Waves, ripples and foam will be coming soon, and should allow for some stellar looking oceans and rivers in future games.

We're due some better looking vegetation too, thanks to the acquisition of vegetation modelling company Speedtree back in 2021 starting to bear fruit. This means more realistic looking (and acting) trees and other shrubbery, which should make the worlds in future games a tad more lifelike.

Finally, better faces. No one likes characters with off putting, botched facial animations and Unity games could be able to dodge that problem thanks to ZIVA VFX and their facial tech coming under the Unity umbrella and landing in developers hands later this year.

The talk was very inside baseball and aimed at developers, which is kind of the point, but even if you're purely a consumer of Unity games the message is clear. Unity games could very well start looking spectacular in the coming months.

What of these upcoming features have you the most excited? Also, just for kicks, which game would you like to see receive which of these interesting new features? Let us know below!