The Unreal Engine 5 aims to reach 60 fps on Xbox Series X and PS5 with the Lumen activated

When Epic Games and Sony showed the Unreal Engine 5's technology demonstration under the bonuses of the PS5 hardware, they achieved the desired effect that was none other than to attract attention. For many of us, including ourselves, it was like taking a look into the future and a taste of what the next generation has to offer. And it's true that we'll still have to wait a while to see the graphics engine in action, but so far everything points to the sky and the photorealism is closer than ever.

During the Unreal Fest Online briefing, Nick Penwarden, Epic Games' Vice President of Engineering, took a closer look at the Unreal Engine 5 lighting engine, called Lumens. Nick explained that the team was looking for improvement and that the team's goal was to reach 60FPS on the next-generation consoles. Currently, the engine has been shown up to a maximum of 30, and that is precisely what they intend to change, but also with the lighting system, the aforementioned Lumen, activated.

The graphic engine that will bring us closer to photorealism

"The Lumen lighting system is an early ambitious technology and currently operates at about 30FPS on the new generation consoles," said Penwarden. "The team is working hard on optimization and our goal is to reach 60FPS by the time the engine is launched. In addition, while Lumen is ideal for the roughest reflective objects, it currently does not support mirror reflections on smooth objects. We also continue to work on detail tracking to reduce light leakage and achieve better results in architectural environments.
"In short, Lumen already works in the new generation consoles, has an excellent feature set, and offers amazing results for real-time dynamic lighting. Overall, we are incredibly excited and looking forward to seeing what content creators can do and what they can achieve with Nanite and Lumen working in unison.

Epic Games has already warned that thanks to the improvements incorporated into the Unreal Engine 5, we are closer than ever to photorealism. How far we can go is something we will see in the near future.