Epic Games continues to evolve its very promising Unreal Engine 5, this time with an effort focused on optimization.
In a still experimental state, version 5.1 of the engine intends to improve performance at all levels.
Better performance for key engine technologies
Available to everyone since last April, the Unreal Engine 5 has already inspired many creators (like a draft game Peaky Blinders) thanks to its promising technologies in the person of “Lumen”, “Nanite” and “Virtual Map Shadow” (VMS).
As a reminder, Lumen is a global solution for dynamic lighting and reflections, allowing lighting effects to adapt in the blink of an eye to changes in lighting or the geometry of the decor. A technology that goes hand in hand with Nanite, which is precisely a virtualized geometry system allowing large numbers of objects to be displayed with an impressive level of detail. Finally, VMS is a method of mapping shadows to display them with a higher level of fidelity, thus working in concert with the other two technologies.
Unfortunately, these three enticing systems have so far proved to be extremely resource-intensive. Thanks to version 5.1 of the Unreal Engine, this should change. Epic Games indicates in a post dedicated to this update on its forum that we should indeed expect to see games running smoothly at 60 fps on PC as well as on PS5 and Xbox Series.
A more accessible engine for developers
The other major part of this update concerns its ease of use. Already available via Github and on the Epic Games Store in an experimental version, the Unreal Engine 5.1 should indeed drastically improve the workflow for developers.
It will therefore in principle be easier for creators to build a large world powered by the aforementioned technologies, in particular thanks to a more fluid interface, with less slowdowns once all the elements are in place.
However, these are just promises from the Epic Games Store at this time, as the full patch notes for the Unreal Engine 5.1 have yet to be shared. It will be necessary to wait for the official release of this new version, at a date still undetermined.
Source : Epic Games
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