STALKER 2 Dev Says UE5’s Nanite and Lumen Were the ‘Right Bricks’ to Properly Finish the Game

wccftech.com:

STALKER 2 had a big presence at Gamescom 2023 despite being absent from the inaugural Opening Night Live show hosted by Geoff Keighley. A demo is playable on the show floor, allowing GSC Game World to gather feedback directly from fans, and the developers have also shared a new trailer that confirms yet another delay into Q1 2024 (as we had noticed from the updated fact sheet).

Evgeniy Grygorovych, Game Director on STALKER 2 and CEO at GSC Game World, was also hosted on the IGN Germany livestream yesterday. The lead developer answered various questions, including one regarding the impact of the decision to move to Unreal Engine 5 on the game.

It may sound like an ad, but actually, we believe that Unreal Engine 5 is the best possible solution for us because the features that it brings, the Nanite and Lumen systems, were the things we were lacking in STALKER 2. They were the right bricks to finish our game in the proper way.

Previously, we had reached a point where we had to decrease the quality of models and textures a lot. With Unreal Engine 5, we started working with the Epic team on implementing the technology in our game, and it became clear that it would allow us to do what we wanted. It wasn't very clear early on how well it was going to work, but now that it's production ready, it's very good. I think it was the right decision to move to Unreal Engine 5.

For us, it was also a new engine, as we hadn't done any game in Unreal Engine. We started from scratch with STALKER 2. It's very different from how developers usually work when they do sequels, where they take the basis and the engine from the previous games and make upgrades, adjustments, or add new features. Doing something from scratch on a new technology that