Graphics Upgraded with Unreal Engine 5.1’s Lumen and Nanite: Fortnite Chapter 4 Out Now

The fourth chapter of Fortnite, one of the most popular free-to-play Battle Royale games, was just released by Epic Games, marking the beginning of a new season. It is not just any other season either since a completely new island has emerged, with essential landmarks like The Citadel, Anvil Square, Brutal Bastion, and Frenzy Fields. Moreover, it is not just any other year.

The Trail Trasher dirt bike, the ability to vault over barriers by rushing toward them, randomized Reality Augments given to players at fixed intervals (assuming that they are still alive), and, of course, new weaponry and healing supplies are all new elements to the gameplay.

You can tell from the preview’s thumbnail that the game will feature well-known new characters such as the Doom Slayer and Geralt of Rivia, who is from The Witcher.

Fortnite Chapter 4 enhances Points of Interest in a couple of different ways, which brings us to our final point. Some of them will be designated as “Hot Spots,” and they will be chosen randomly at the beginning of each match.

These are crammed to the gills with flying drones that, once destroyed, will release rare weaponry into the surrounding area. Your squad may also take down POIs if you remain near the flag for a sufficient amount of time. This will also reward players in that squad with loot.

Epic Games has upgraded the visuals of the game by porting Fortnite Chapter 4 to the newest version of the Unreal Engine (5.1). While the game was already capable of running on Unreal Engine 5, the creators are now using the platform’s primary capabilities, namely Nanite and Lumen. The following is an overview that Epic supplied:

NANITE

The architectural geometry that Nanite gives is quite intricate. To be more specific, structures are rendered in real-time using millions of polygons, and each brick, stone, wood plank, and wall trim is represented.

Even natural landscapes have an incredible level of detail. Each tree comprises over 300,000 polygons, and the game also models every stone, flower, and blade of grass.

LUMEN

Lumen reflections offer high-quality ray-traced reflections on water and shiny objects. Additionally, Lumen offers real-time global lighting at a frame rate of sixty frames per second.

You’ll get to witness not just stunning interior spaces illuminated by bounce lighting but also characters responding to the lighting of their environment.

(For instance, red rugs might reflect red light onto your outfit, which can be unflattering.) In addition, Outfits that feature emissive properties, often known as glowing attributes, will cause light to be scattered on neighboring surfaces and objects.

VIRTUAL SHADOW MAPS

Shadowing may be done in a very precise manner using virtual shadow maps. Each brick and leaf will produce a shadow, and sculpted feature, and the character self-shadowing is quite precise. This indicates that minor elements on characters, such as hats and other ornaments, will likewise create shadows on the screen.

SUPER RESOLUTION AT TEMPORAL REPETITION (TSR)

In Fortnite, Temporal Super Resolution is an improvement that can be obtained by purchasing Temporal Anti-Aliasing. This upgrade makes it possible to maintain a high framerate while maintaining a high level of visual quality.

It is important to remember that out of all of those technological advancements, only the Temporal Super Resolution has been sent out to Fortnite Save the World and creator-made islands.

Setting GI and Reflections to Lumen High or Lumen Epic on a PC is required to allow hardware ray tracing for Lumen GI and Reflections. In addition, Nanite has to be turned on for the PC. Please take notice that NVIDIA DLSS is presently disabled as Epic works to guarantee that it functions appropriately in this latest version.

Suppose players on the newest consoles (PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S|X) turn off the 120 FPS mode in the graphics section of the video settings. In that case, they will be able to continue to enjoy Fortnite Chapter 4’s Nanite, Lumen, Virtual Shadow Maps, and Temporal Super Resolution features. However, they will not be able to use the Temporal Super Resolution feature.

GeForce NOW is an option worth considering even if you do not own a powerful enough personal computer or a console from the most recent generation, provided that you have access to a high-speed internet connection.