- Unreal Engine 5.8 has introduced a medium-quality global illumination setting for Lumen.
- Epic Games states that this setting should drastically improve Lumen’s performance, making it possible to target 60FPS on handhelds.
- This update, along with others, should greatly benefit the Nintendo Switch 2, the rumored PlayStation handheld, and more.
Following the mass adoption of Unreal Engine 5, Epic Games has been hard at work on new iterations of the technology for quite a while. In addition to addressing CPU bottlenecks and other areas, performance has been a key priority for the developer.
In its latest update on the technology, Epic Games has once again shared encouraging information regarding the performance. As per Epic Games, Unreal Engine 5.8 delivers key performance improvements in relation to Lumen.
Why it matters: Lumen global illumination is one of the headlining features of the technology. However, it can prove to be too intensive for modest hardware to run.
According to Epic Games, Lumen has been updated to support “medium-quality Global Illumination.” The good news is that this new version is said to be twice as fast as the high-quality global illumination setting, which targets 60FPS on the PS5.
Epic Games states that the new medium quality version of Lumen is suitable for the latest handhelds, particularly when attempting to aim for 60FPS gameplay. This is also great news for mid-range and budget PC hardware.
Elsewhere, Unreal Engine 5.8’s MegaLights promises more scalable lighting workflows for further performance improvements on current-gen consoles and handhelds. Clearly, then, a lot of effort has gone into improving the performance of the engine without compromising its lighting features.
Epic Games’ optimization focus could ultimately benefit the likes of the Nintendo Switch 2 and the rumored PlayStation handheld moving forward.
In particular, the former has been shown to be capable of supporting software Lumen in games like Layers of Fear, so further optimizations could help expand the use of Lumen on the console.
At the same time, the studio is also working on Unreal Engine 6 for the upcoming console generation and PC hardware.
What do you think about these improvements in Unreal Engine 5.8? Let’s discuss in the comments and on the Tech4Gamers Forums.
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[Senior News Reporter]
Avinash is currently pursuing a Business degree in Australia. For more than 5 years, he has been working as a gaming journalist, utilizing his writing skills and love for gaming to report on the latest updates in the industry. Avinash loves to play action games like Devil May Cry and has also been mentioned on highly regarded websites, such as IGN, GamesRadar, GameRant, Dualshockers, CBR, and Gamespot.
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