Unreal Engine update could fix PC games – and make gaming MacBooks more likely
techradar.comEpic Games, the company behind Fortnite, has updated its Unreal Engine tool that’s used in many of the best PC games around, and it could help reverse the recent trend of messy PC ports – while also potentially making Apple’s MacBooks and Macs more appealing to gamers.
Despite the best gaming laptops and best gaming PCs offering a level of power that the PS5 and Xbox Series X can only dream of, there’s been a concerning trend recently with games on PC often performing poorly, despite the extra graphical oomph they can make use of.
High-profile games such as The Last of Us and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor have had noticeable performance issues on PC – especially when it comes to stuttering, which makes the games unenjoyable to play.
The good news is that Unreal Engine 5.2, the upcoming version of the tool, comes with various improvements to reduce – and even eliminate – stuttering. This includes an improved PSO precaching system. Stuttering can occur if the game engine tries to load content and it’s not ready. Using Pipeline State Object (PSO) to cache any Shaders ahead of them being needed aims to reduce instances of stuttering (also known as hitching).
The stability and performance of this process are improved in Unreal Engine 5.2, and it can now skip PSOs if they are not ready, further reducing stuttering.
Technical jargon aside, this should mean that modern PC games built on Unreal Engine 5.2 will run far more smoothly – and that’s great news for PC gamers. There are caveats – the game needs to be made in Unreal Engine 5.2, and it may take a while for those titles to start hitting the market.
Unreal Engine is one of the most popular game engines in the world, however, with a wide range of high-profile game developers using it,
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