The public version of Unreal Engine 5.4 has been released, and all game authors can now work with it. Gamers should expect improved image quality and increased performance.
One of the most important innovations was the updated TSR (Temporal Super Resolution) technology, which is an alternative to solutions such as NVIDIA DLSS, AMD FSR and Intel XeSS. But it has an important advantage: TSR is cross-platform, it is built into the Unreal Engine, so developers will not need to add any third-party plugins to run it. With the release of Unreal Engine 5.4, TSR scaling has improved.
In particular, the History Resurrection function appeared in the High, Epic and Cinematic smoothing modes. Traditionally, the TSR algorithm excludes image details that overlap with other objects, are obscured or go beyond the screen; but when reappearing in the frame, these details may be accompanied by artefacts. History Resurrection technology preserves the scene’s history, which is used when rendering new details if a more exact match is not found in subsequent frames of the original. This feature increases the stability of TSR, provides the ability to predict the output data, and helps reduce halos around objects. Developers also have new visualization modes that help understand the mechanisms of TSR and the ability to adjust the algorithm to reach the target performance.
The authors of Unreal Engine drew attention to the fact that developers focus on the 60 Hz refresh rate in games, so Unreal Engine 5.4 used tools to improve performance when drawing. Experimental support for Vulkan Ray Tracing appeared – this gave the Vulkan API parity with DirectX 12 and support for ray tracing in Linux. Hit Lighting mode can now be used in global lighting and reflections (Lumen) and path (Path) tracing. Additional primitive types have helped improve performance in Hardware Ray Tracing (HWRT) – the path tracer in Unreal Engine 5.4 promises a 15 percent performance boost compared to Unreal Engine 5.3. One of the first games on the updated version of the engine promises to be Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra.
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