Since its launch, Unreal Engine 5 has been touted as a revolution in gaming. Unfortunately, in practice, players received productions with terrible optimisation, especially on weaker platforms. Games often looked little better than titles from UE4, and performed decidedly worse. Who's to blame? Some point to the developers, while others point to the engine itself – particularly its Lumen and Nanite systems.
Unreal Engine 5.7 – Epic promises improvements
Epic Games has just presented Unreal Engine 5.7, and the main highlight of the updates is performance enhancements. Procedural Content Generation (PCG) is expected to work almost twice as fast as in UE 5.5, as confirmed by tests from Guru3D. The new version is also designed to better utilise GPU and CPU resources, which in theory should result in more stable game performance.
New features: Nanite Foliage and MegaLights
UE 5.7 is not just about optimisation. The engine has gained Nanite Foliage – that is, the implementation of Nanite for vegetation – and an enhanced lighting system MegaLights, which is intended to provide more realistic lighting effects. Currently, the version is still in the testing phase (Preview), but the changes look promising.
Will players finally catch a break?
The question is: will this be enough for players to stop complaining about Unreal Engine 5? Recent releases demonstrate how significant the issue is – Borderlands 4 received a massive wave of criticism specifically for poor optimisation. If UE 5.7 truly delivers on Epic's promises, we may finally get productions that not only look good but also run without frustration.
