Epic Games’ latest Unreal Engine 5 update includes major performance overhauls specifically targeting handhelds like the Nintendo Switch 2.

As part of the engine’s new 5.8 update, Epic games has introduced major optimisations for its highly-intensive Lumen lighting system. Epic confirms that this is part of a series of major performance improvements, allowing games to target 60fps on all major paltforms.

In the public roadmap for Unreal Engine 5.8, Epic notes that the engine’s new Lumen medium quality overhauls is now “twice as fast as Lumen high quality, which targets 60fps on PlayStation 5, while maintaining the art direction for games that rely on Global Illumination”. While lower-quality, the new version for lower-end hardware should look much better while also maintaining performance.

Epic notes that “this path of the new default for current-gen handheld consoles, where it can be used at 60fps”. This means that games on Nintendo Switch 2 and other handhelds such as Valve’s Steam Deck should be able to run at higher levels of performance while maintaining current-gen lighting setups on Unreal Engine 5.

The Nintendo Switch 2 in particular has pushed some extremely high-quality ports since launch. Ubisoft’s Star Wars Outlaws and MachineGames’ Indiana Jones and The Great Circle are both playable on the handheld with full ray-tracing setups, but Unreal Engine games have rarely seen their more advanced features on the handheld.

With that said, Bloober Team’s Nintendo Switch 2 port of Layers of Fear did see the use of Lumen at a largely solid 60fps. Via Digital Foundry, the Nintendo Switch 2 version of the horror game was able to match the Xbox Series S in many examples, making it one of the most impressive ports to the handheld. 

While certainly doable, even at high framerates, in prior versions of the engine, this new update to Unreal Engine 5 should make more advanced lighting setups easier for developers on the handheld, as well as Xbox’s lower-power Series S machine. However, there are other features of the engine—such as Nanite—that currently prove too taxing for the hardware in many cases.

Nevertheless, Epic is still working on more major performance overhauls for its often controversial engine. There are also a multitude of other features coming in the engine’s 5.8 update including support for FSSS, Fog Screen Space Scattering which should make volumetric fog more realistic in cinematic games.