Epic Games has just released Unreal Engine 5.6 to all developers and creators, and detailed its major new features. So, let’s see what this new version of UE5 brings to the table.
According to Epic Games, Unreal Engine 5.6 brings big improvements to how it handles Hardware Ray Tracing (HWRT). These changes help make Lumen Global Illumination run faster and smoother. Thanks to these upgrades, the engine removes certain CPU problems that used to slow things down. This means game developers can now create more detailed and complex scenes while still keeping a smooth 60FPS. In simple terms, games can look better and run better at the same time.
Moreover, the team made the engine work better while playing games, especially when loading or removing parts of the game world. They added a new tool, the Fast Geometry Streaming Plugin. This helps devs put more objects into the game that don’t change, like buildings or trees. These objects now load faster and help the game keep a smooth frame rate. Also, all games made with Unreal Engine will now stream content more smoothly. This means the game will handle things like physics better, such as when items appear or disappear, so everything feels quicker and runs more smoothly.
Epic Games has also enhanced the PCG framework. As such, devs will now be able to create worlds and manage complex scenes efficiently, and with better GPU-driven performance.
Epic Games has made some cool updates to the Node Graph UX (Beta) to make things easier for game developers. Now, devs can use inline constants, which means they can create, move, and change things like numbers or settings faster and more easily right inside the graph.
Epic also added a brand-new 3D viewpoint. This lets devs see how points, textures, and 3D models look right away while working. Plus, there are now custom templates and tools that help organize nodes better. All of this helps developers work faster and test changes quickly, saving time and effort.
It’s also worth noting that Epic Games has brought big GPU improvements. These changes help the system run better and more smoothly, especially when handling lots of objects in busy and detailed scenes. Thanks to these updates, the CPU doesn’t have to work as hard. This means the GPU can now create or “spawn” objects during gameplay in a faster and more stable way. These changes will give devs more control, speed, and accuracy when building large and complex worlds.
The PCG system has also gotten a big upgrade. It now uses multithreading, which means it can split up tasks and run them on different parts of the computer at the same time. This makes everything work faster and smoother, especially when building or playing in large or complex worlds. Thanks to this, you can expect better performance and quicker responses while working or playing in the engine.
And that’s not all. In Unreal Engine 5.6, Virtual Shadow Maps have been improved. They now run better and use less memory. Shadows also look nicer, and artists have more control over how they appear in a scene. Unreal Engine 5.6 also adds a new Petzval Bokeh setting. This changes how the background looks when it’s out of focus, making it look more like what you see in real cameras. This works both in real-time and in high-quality Path Tracer renders.
These appear to be the features that will interest most gamers. There are also numerous other features, which Epic Games detailed here. These features are mostly for developers, so most of you won’t find them interesting.
The most important features, in my opinion, are the Lumen and Ray Tracing optimizations. Plus, with the streaming improvements, we might get UE5 games that do not suffer from traversal stutters. So, I’m pretty excited for the future UE5 games.
Enjoy and stay tuned for more!
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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Gaming is dead, for real. and i am glad it died. slop after slop, shills, bad writing, awful engines, soulless craps. enjoy
So edgy.
consoom shill consoomer
No, I just have a functioning brain and can recognize that AAA gaming is in the sh*ters, not gaming as a whole.
dont worry your indie slop is the same.
Oh yeah sure, Expedition 33 is total slop. And so was Remnant II. And Neva. And Split Fiction…
Split Fiction ? are you a lonley lesbian ? lol
Find your niche, have fun and laugh at the fast declining mainstream entertainment industry.
PC gaming is "dying" for what, 15 years now?
Longer than that and yet the trend been moving upward so far… That said with the rate nvidia and amd keeps price gauging on the GPU's side i think its a matter of time before the mainstream starts to take a hit and when that happens we will all take a hit… as less install base = less sales = less effort put into the games. Been asking is nvidia really are a boon to PC gaming at this point, looking at higher prices and watered down product stack and that's without even considering their worst series launch and crappy drivers of late
PC gaming will survive, but it will change. Some people are already seething because AA studios can make high quality games with the fracture of money. Just give it time and AAA studios/publishers will burn themselves out.
They've been burning out for half a decade now, why do you think they're merging and cancelling projects left and right?
They're going the way of Hollywood
Your list is missing "gaming trolls in comment sections".
like your f*g*et a** ?
I would argue it's not dying, More like we are spoilt for choice and expect even more from releases.
There is always a few good games that come out each year even if the rest is slop.
I still have 700+ unplayed older games in backlog to get through, Quite a few are AAA(when they were good).
I think people ignore that part so much. Steam almost the amount of games it gets on the platform every year and it most definitely becomes a endless sea of slop and time wasters but just like other entertainment media, most of the good stuff still rises to the top. I think part of the issue is that making rage bait engagement content hating on the bad stuff has become so easily monetizable and algorithmically favored.
You are pointing the obvious, of course there are good games out there and there will be good games in the future, but in general majority of releases are bad, broken and DEI riddled garbage. above mediocre games are few and far between.
The common PC gamer today doesn't care about computer graphics technology. Only frames. Zero research.
no i dont care about the new way they created to make games look worse and run even worse with new ray tracing and even larger vram pools that most pc gamers dont even have more than 8gb of vram, thanks nvidia and how this new technology is gonna make open world games even larger emptier and uglier like stalker 2 and how they can now make even uglier black women characters. The only thing that does matter is making indie devs make fast and easy games that look like they came from 20 years ago but have good gameplay. AAA must burn and unreal engine sucks now.
You are the most pathetic "common" "mainstream" shill out there. which part do you like the most ?
You don't know what shill means.
kys
It's because devs don't care about frames anymore.
so is it possible that current 5.5 or earlier version be upgraded ?
Yes, the upgrade path is always there when a new version releases. It can be a simple upgrade or more complex depending on the project.
The next version will fix all the issues this version introduce, same old story.
"Unreal Engine 5.6 Released, Packing Major New Features"
This was about the features though. of course developers will still need to use their discretion when making their projects.
Indeed. Developer competence will be key to getting much from the new features. I'm a bit skeptical for now that there will be much competence in general though. Unreal engines offer a big advantage to developers with their huge libraries to develop games more easily but the old saying holds true, "the tool is only as good as the worker using it."
This engine needs as much help as it can get
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https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/41c44e75472f6f272bcb14c2b732b318def018c8883f4dc53ccfeb0562053946.gif
Packing new features like the one we came to expect? Even more stutters, blur and even worse performance! Yeah shoehorn in new stuff without fixing the major issues (Sure sure… some seems to be fixed looking at the readme but time will tell if its anything that actually will matter in the end, seriously doubt it at this point with epics track record!)