The engine isn’t bad itself. The problem is it has some really cool tools that are expensive to run, but developers just turn them all on instead of optimizing. See: ARC Raiders for how it should be done. It’s UE5, but they aren’t using Nanite or Lumen. UE5 can run very well. Game developers thinking the only thing that matters is having the most photorealistic games is what’s causes the issue.
UE 5.8 is supposed to include a “Lumen Lite” and some other improvements so that “games that rely on global illumination for artistic purposes can run on Nintendo Switch 2 at 60 fps”. That’ll probably provide a big boost on other platforms, but I dunno if anyone will patch their existing games to the new version.
I wish it was possible to disable lumen. I have a feeling that alone is whats robbing FPS, and that alone is why a lot of ue5 games have resolution scaling forced enabled and cant be turned off
The developers can, or they can add a toggle. It isn’t fundamental to UE5. ARC Raiders and Squad are both on UE5 and don’t use Lumen.
The issue is supporting Lumen and another lighting solution requires them to make sure both work. For multiplayer games especially, having both isn’t an option, because then it gives an advantage to some people. Squad, for example, looked into it, but they ended up going with a different GI system that’s more performant so everyone can (and must) use it.
For single-player games, it’s possible to have Lumen and another option. It’s just extra cost to development. They’d rather go with the option that creates better trailers and not worry about people struggling to run it. They can run at an upscale 240p for all the executives care.
The engine isn’t bad itself. The problem is it has some really cool tools that are expensive to run, but developers just turn them all on instead of optimizing. See: ARC Raiders for how it should be done. It’s UE5, but they aren’t using Nanite or Lumen. UE5 can run very well. Game developers thinking the only thing that matters is having the most photorealistic games is what’s causes the issue.
UE 5.8 is supposed to include a “Lumen Lite” and some other improvements so that “games that rely on global illumination for artistic purposes can run on Nintendo Switch 2 at 60 fps”. That’ll probably provide a big boost on other platforms, but I dunno if anyone will patch their existing games to the new version.
I wish it was possible to disable lumen. I have a feeling that alone is whats robbing FPS, and that alone is why a lot of ue5 games have resolution scaling forced enabled and cant be turned off
I bet things would look better, too.
The developers can, or they can add a toggle. It isn’t fundamental to UE5. ARC Raiders and Squad are both on UE5 and don’t use Lumen.
The issue is supporting Lumen and another lighting solution requires them to make sure both work. For multiplayer games especially, having both isn’t an option, because then it gives an advantage to some people. Squad, for example, looked into it, but they ended up going with a different GI system that’s more performant so everyone can (and must) use it.
For single-player games, it’s possible to have Lumen and another option. It’s just extra cost to development. They’d rather go with the option that creates better trailers and not worry about people struggling to run it. They can run at an upscale 240p for all the executives care.