Key Takeaways
1. Unreal Engine 5 is struggling with performance issues due to a lack of optimization, mainly because developers prioritize high-end hardware first.
2. Tim Sweeney emphasizes the need for early optimization in the development process to improve performance across various systems.
3. Epic Games is working on enhancing engine support and educating developers to adopt early optimization as standard practice.
4. The complexity of modern games makes addressing optimization more challenging, requiring better collaboration between engine makers and game teams.
5. Recent titles, like Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, showcase significant optimization challenges on consoles, particularly the PS5 and PS5 Pro.
Unreal Engine 5 has been facing significant performance challenges, primarily due to insufficient optimization over the past year. Epic’s CEO, Tim Sweeney, mentioned that developers have tended to prioritize higher-end hardware, neglecting lower-end systems until later in the development process.
Developer Priorities
In a discussion with the Korean media outlet “This is Game” at the recent Unreal Fest in CODEX Seoul, Sweeney highlighted the engine’s ongoing optimization and performance issues. He indicated that the root cause is in the way studios design their workflows. He stated, “The main cause is the order of development. Many studios build for top-tier hardware first and leave optimization and low-spec testing for the end.”
This method of focusing on high-end systems first helps explain why many games have difficulties running on various PC setups, especially on less powerful machines. This issue has also been seen on consoles like the PS5 and PS5 Pro, as shown by the performance of games like Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater.
Need for Early Optimization
Sweeney emphasized the necessity of shifting this development strategy, saying, “Ideally, optimization should begin early- before full content build-out.” He pointed out that achieving proper optimization is challenging and becomes even more difficult if it is postponed until the end of development.
To tackle these optimization concerns, Epic is undertaking efforts on both the engine and educational fronts. Sweeney shared, “We’re doing two things, strengthening engine support with more automated optimization across devices, and expanding developer education so ‘optimize early’ becomes standard practice. If needed, our engineers can step in.”
Complexity in Game Development
Sweeney also remarked on the increasing complexity of games compared to a decade ago, making it harder to address optimization issues at the engine level. He added, “Engine makers and game teams need to collaborate.”
These efforts come in light of Epic’s Unreal Engine 5.6 update, released a few months back, which promises GPU performance improvements of up to 25% and CPU boosts of 35%.
Notably, recent titles like Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater have highlighted the optimization challenges facing Unreal Engine. Digital Foundry reported that the PS5’s performance mode aims for 60 frames per second at dynamic resolutions ranging from 720p to 1080p, while the Quality mode targets between 1080p and 1584p at 30 frames per second. However, in practice, the PS5’s Performance mode often yields around 30-50 FPS, and the Quality mode typically falls between 24 and 30 FPS.
PS5 Pro Limitations
To complicate things further, the PS5 Pro has only one graphics setting, aiming for 60 FPS, yet it often does not reach the average frame rate of the standard PS5, averaging between 30-60 FPS, which is around 7 FPS lower than what the base PS5 delivers.
In summary, the optimization hurdles that Unreal Engine faces are becoming increasingly apparent, especially with recent titles, as reported by Digital Foundry and Clawsome Gamer.
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