Epic Games revealed details about Unreal Engine 5.8. The main change was the redesigned Lumen lighting system, created with less GPU load and without loss of visual quality.
Lumen in Unreal Engine is responsible for global illumination and real-time reflections. The technology allows for more natural light without pre-baking. However, its use previously heavily burdened weaker devices.
Epic stated that Lumen Lite runs approximately twice as fast as the previous version. Thanks to this, games with global illumination will be able to run on Nintendo Switch 2 at 60 FPS. The new version retains most of the visual effects with reduced GPU load.
This could expand the number of games on Switch 2 using Unreal Engine 5. Some projects are already running on this engine on the console, including Fortnite, and the update could accelerate the appearance of new ports. Among the games on UE5 are Halo: Campaign Evolved, The Outer Worlds 2, Arc Raiders, and Black Myth: Wukong.