These enhancements from Unreal Engine 5 look wild.
Fortnite Battle Royale already boasted some pretty clean graphics on PS5, but it's just got a major upgrade. Epic Games has added new enhancements unleashed through Unreal Engine 5.1 in the release of Fortnite Chapter 4 Season 1 for PS5, Xbox Series X and S and PC.
Geometry and lighting are improved, and shadows and reflections should look more realistic and respond to modelled detail, making everyone's favourite survival game look better than ever. Still looking for a PS5 to play on? See our guide to the best PS5 prices and our PS5 review.
Fortnite already looked pretty impressive on the PS5 – although God of War: Ragnarok has truly bowled us over. But the release of Fortnite Chapter 4 Season 1 ups the game even further. Epic Games has integrated some of the next-gen capabilities made possible by Unreal Engine 5.1, and the results look stunning.
Nanite, Unreal Engine 5's virtualised geometry system, has improved the architectural geometry of the island. Buildings are now "rendered from millions of polygons in real time, and each brick, stone, wood plank, and wall trim is modelled,” the developer says. Natural landscapes are also more detailed. Trees have around 300,000 polygons, and each stone, flower, and blade of grass is modelled.
Meanwhile, the illumination and reflections system Lumen adds ray-traced reflections and real-time global illumination at 60 frames-per-second. Characters react to changing lighting, while virtual shadow maps improve shadow quality, with shadows both for modelled details and characters – including for things like hats and other small details. Finally, new Temporal Super Resolution promises “high-quality visuals at a high framerate” as an upgrade to Temporal Anti-Aliasing.
Fans have been applauding the update on Twitter. "Fortnite is the first game I've seen do a cartoony art style with realistic graphics and actually look good," one person wrote. "Man, I can't imagine that Fortnite of all games got me excited about video game graphics again, someone else tweeted.
Fortnite sweats after going out into the beautiful sun for 0.1 seconds.This graphics update is amazing pic.twitter.com/V2J02lI2udDecember 5, 2022
Chapter 1 VS Chapter 4 Graphics!#Fortnite #Fortnitechapter4 pic.twitter.com/tOnihZ7ZgNDecember 5, 2022
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How does this affect content creators? Epic Games is encouraging creators to show their audiences what Unreal Engine can do. It recommends that to show off Nanite and Lumen, rendering mode is set to DirectX 12, Graphics Quality video settings be auto set and that Temporal Super Resolution should be adjusted to find the balance between visual fidelity and frame rate for each streaming or recording setup.
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With the new enhancements to the game, you might want to make sure you have the best TV for PS5. For more games, see our choice of the best PS5 games.
Joe is a regular freelance journalist and editor at Creative Bloq. He writes news, features and buying guides and keeps track of the best equipment and software for creatives, from video editing programs to monitors and accessories. A veteran news writer and photographer, he now works as a project manager at the London and Buenos Aires-based design, production and branding agency Hermana Creatives. There he manages a team of designers, photographers and video editors who specialise in producing visual content and design assets for the hospitality sector. He also dances Argentine tango.
