Lumen, Nanite, Unreal Engine 5. If you’ve paid any amount of attention to the tech of video games over the past couple of years, you’ll have most likely heard these terms. Yet, the potential has primarily existed in the form of demos and promises from its creators Epic Games. Countless developers have pledged allegiance to UE5, but its possibilities have yet to be realised in an actual shipping game – until now.
With the company’s popular Fortnite battle royale title often working as a vehicle for showcasing Unreal’s capabilities, the latest chapter finally delivers on these promises by introducing the full suite of UE5 features across current-gen consoles and PC. Now, Fortnite runs at 60fps while harnessing the power of Lumen’s fully dynamic global illumination and reflections, in combination with the unprecedented detail made possible by Nanite.
It’s a transformative upgrade, and one that deserves a close look – both in terms of its visual accomplishments and its performance impact on all supported platforms, from PC and PS5 to Xbox Series X and S. The concept of getting UE5’s high-end features running on console at all is impressive, but to hit the 60fps target – even on Series S – is a serious achievement well worth a more in-depth analysis and it’s also interesting to see how the tech scales still further on PC. Helping us with our analysis were discussions earlier in the week with Epic’s Nick Penwarden, Epic’s VP of engineering.
