The industry veteran stated that the root of the problem lies not so much in the engine itself, but in the state of the gaming industry.
Denis Dyack, the creator of the cult games Eternal Darkness and Legacy of Kain, shared his thoughts on the optimization problems of modern games on Unreal Engine 5. In a two-hour interview with KiwiTalkz, the industry veteran stated that the root of the problem lies not so much in the engine itself, but in the state of the gaming industry.
Previously, Dyack's studio worked on Deadhaus Sonata on the Amazon Lumberyard engine, but after a series of changes, the team eventually switched to Epic Games technology, settling past disagreements related to the Too Human project.
According to the developer, most teams using Unreal Engine 5 consist of hundreds of specialists, each of whom is responsible for only a narrow area of work. As an example, he cited an artist who is exclusively involved in creating grass and optimizes only it, without any idea of how the other systems work. With teams of 200–1000 people, it is extremely difficult to ensure comprehensive technical control — everyone moves in their own direction, trying to make the game better within their area of responsibility.
Dyack noted that although there are enough experienced specialists in the industry, a significant proportion of employees have only 2–5 years of experience. He himself has been working in game development for 35 years and has created his own engines, so he emphasizes that optimization is an extremely complex and time-consuming process. A universal engine like Unreal Engine 5 is \"good at everything\", but the optimization requirements for a racing game, an open-world role-playing game, or a 2D project are radically different. To achieve a high-quality result, it is necessary to deeply understand the specifics of a particular game.
The main problem, according to the developer, is the crisis state of the industry. He stated that many companies simply do not have the time and resources for full optimization: if the game works, it is released in its current state, even if the performance leaves much to be desired. In such conditions, the emphasis shifts towards adding new content, which is easier to sell to the audience than "invisible" performance improvements.
