Unreal Engine 5 Feature Aims to Boost Lumen Performance on Low-End Hardware
The latest feature in Unreal Engine 5 is designed to improve the Lumen performance on low-end hardware. Within this recent update to the most recent development branch of Unreal Engine 5 a feature that should dramatically improve performance for the advanced Lumen lighting system has been included to make it possible to run even on games for a hypothetical Nintendo Switch 2 platform.
Lumen Irradiance Cache
The new feature is probe-based Lumen chiefly directed towards devices with less powerful hardware according to tech artist Dylan Browne. Such an easy-going version of the lighting technology was intended as an alternative to having no dynamic global illumination at all.
Compared to standard Hardware Lumen, the new mode comes with some visual trade-offs indeed. Lesser detailed occlusion, and simpler reflections are to be expected. Early comparisons, however, suggest it is a worthy compromise in achieving said general effect of Lumen in systems which were unable to handle it before.
Promising Performance Gains
Very preliminary in the rollout of the feature, yet even now performance improvements look promising. There was a git update message about this feature shared on the ResetERA forums that then was pulled down but before it went down pretty much stated that Lumen Irradiance Cache is very fast.
- Increased performance of the Lumen "gather stage" by 2.5 times.
- Contributes to an overall speed-up of Lumen Scene by 1.5 times.
What This Means for the Nintendo Switch 2
Hence, it obviously bears much significance for the next console from Nintendo the Switch 2. For instance, it is generally not using Lumen for Unreal Engine 5 games made available to this particular console, such as Cronos The New Dawn, apparently because of high demands the programming would have on the CPU of the system. There are also Epic's own flagship title Fortnite, which did not run on the Switch 2 with its signature Lumen and Nanite features.
This introduction of a Lumen Irradiance Cache, therefore, indicates that active efforts have been underway for making these hallmark UE5 technologies feasible on this console, which may enable future Nintendo Switch 2 ports to come closer to matching the graphics of the games developed for other, more powerful consoles.
In the meantime, the expectation is that this new, more efficient Lumen option is to be widely adopted by developers soon enough, consequently boosting the visual richness of upcoming games on that platform.
