The Lumen lighting technology featured in Unreal Engine 5 is now capable of running at 60 fps on PS5, though Epic Games aims to optimize it further to reach 120 fps.
During the Epic Games Unreal Fest 2024 (via) in Seattle, it was revealed that, with update 5.5, Unreal Engine is now capable of running high quality Lumen and hardware-based ray tracing at 60 fps on PS5, and by extension the Xbox Series X. Lumen is targeting less than 2 ms of rendering time. Epic Games is looking to make it more scalable in future, with further optimizations aimed at getting the rendering technology to target 120 fps on current-gen consoles.
In addition, Epic Games is also planning to optimize its newly unveiled MegaLights technology to target 60 fps on current-gen consoles in the future. It was mentioned that the technology is currently in an early an experimental state, and that its performance will be optimized over time.
The aforementioned MegaLights technology was presented as the key new feature added to Unreal Engine 5 with update 5.5. According to the presentation at Epic Games Unreal Fest 2024, it can render virtually infinite movable and dynamic lights sources, all casting realistic shadows. The demo showing off the technology was played in real-time on PS5. Epic Games is carrying over its technological philosopy of infinite polygons via Nanite over to MegaLights and its promise of infinite light sources. As per the engine maker, this can be a major breakthrough for open world games, allowing them to add unprecedented scene and environment complexity. Though, it was mentioned that smart optimization from game developers will be important in its utilization.
Previously, it was revealed during an interview on the Flow Games YouTube channel that The Witcher 4 developer CD Projekt Red has been working closely with Epic Games in order to bring structural improvements to Unreal Engine 5. Read about it here.
