The Unreal Engine 5.1 has arrived to offer a boost in performance, graphics, and new physics.
Fortnite is recognized as the largest and most popular Battle Royale in the world. Since its launch in 2017, it has shown superiority over the competition, staying current during all these years. But, it is also known for something very important: being the test dummy for Epic’s new game engines.
Surprisingly, Epic Games has introduced a major update for Season 4. It’s an update that is not important for its content but for the addition of a new game engine: Unreal Engine 5.1. The update to Epic’s past game engine has brought a surprising increase in the game’s performance and graphics.
More performance, better graphics, fewer requirements
When Fortnite made the leap from Unreal Engine 4 to Unreal Engine 5, a very big change was noticed for the game’s performance. It allowed Epic Games to make use of more elaborate textures with millions of polygons. Thanks to this, we could see a very important boost in graphics. But, in many cases, the raw performance of the game was affected. In the case of PC, this required higher system requirements.
Although Epic Games was working overtime in this section, there was still that problem. Even so, many players simply opted to use the game with lower qualities. But, surprisingly for many, Epic Games has ported Fortnite to a new update of the Unreal Engine 5.
Unreal Engine 5.1 has introduced a lot of changes from a technical point of view. The game’s map has been optimized to the max to improve many of the performance issues that players were encountering. They have optimized the drawing processes within the game to reduce bugs.
In addition to these, and many other technical changes, it has allowed many players to get a performance improvement. Players are averaging a 20 to 30 FPS improvement with the CPU playing the initial role in the improvement. But, the most impressive changes are associated with the graphical aspect.
Visual Impact of Unreal Engine 5.1
Epic Games have assured fans that Unreal Engine 5.1 allows for creating a level of detail unprecedented in the industry. Much of this is thanks to the addition of two new technologies: Lumen and Nanite. These two technologies are complemented by the addition of virtual shadow maps and incredible temporal super-resolution.
This new Lumen technology is focused on lighting enhancements. It performs high-quality ray-tracing reflections on the surface of objects (water, tree leaves). It also offers real-time global illumination at 60 FPS. Added to this is Nanite. This other technology generates a more advanced geometric architecture in real-time. This allows the texturing of each construction or element of the game more faithful to reality.
Accompanying these technologies are two that are more related to the technical aspect of the graphics. The new virtual shadow maps are in charge of the advanced generation of shadows. Every element in the game now generates shadows that are true to life. This, mixed with Lumen technology, allows the game’s texturing to be enhanced down to the smallest detail.
Those players who usually play in medium or high quality, thanks to the temporal super-resolution, will receive an important graphical boost. It will improve the anti-aliasing of the game, allowing a higher quality even at very high frame rates. Thanks to all this, Fortnite once again leaps forward in technology in front of the competition. It is a matter of time before we see this Unreal Engine 5 update implemented in other games. In the meantime, see you in Tilted Towers.
