LogInTim Sweeney says the culprit is "the order of the development process," not the engine itself.
One of the most common complaints about Unreal Engine 5 – probably second only to the gripe that games made with it all look the same – is its optimization issues, which in some cases make it difficult to run certain titles on lower-end hardware. Reminding us that any tool is only as good as the one using it is Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney, who said in a recent interview that game studios' approaches to development are the main reason UE5-powered titles struggle to run smoothly on some PCs or GPUs.
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Replying to questions following the keynote session at the recently-concluded Unreal Fest Seoul (via This Is Game), Sweeney addressed concerns over poor optimization, attributing them to "the order of the development process" followed by many game studios.
According to the CEO, studios often design games around high-end hardware first, leaving optimization and low-spec testing until the final stages of development, which leads to performance issues in the finished product. In a perfect world, he notes, optimization should start early – even before full-scale content production begins – to prevent such problems.
With developer practices giving UE5 a bad name, Epic is not standing idle and is preparing two main approaches to address the issue. Firstly, the team aims to strengthen support within Unreal Engine and introduce automated optimization features across various hardware platforms, allowing developers to streamline the optimization process.
Secondly, they plan to enhance developer education, sharing more materials that would cover the overall workflow of testing and optimization and emphasize the importance of starting optimization early. "When necessary, our engineers will step in directly to share best practices and provide hands-on technical support," Sweeney comments.
And how has your experience with UE5-powered games been so far? Are they running smoothly on your specs, or struggling? Let us know down in the comments!
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