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[CompleteGlobalSaturation]

Am I the only one who thinks UE5 games look shit?

Great in screenshots - but where it matters, horrible IQ in motion.

Black Myth Wukong looks incredibly grainy and dithered. Made even worse by the use of Framegen (thus disabled).

Looks bad in motion regardless of DLSS quality or DLAA.

Edit: I stand corrected

Some other games utilising UE5 maintain good clarity in motion. Marvel Rivals looks exceptionally clean. Delta Force has superb image quality, looks completely free of aliasing. The developers did a good job.

I think this is inherent to BM Wukong. Too bad because this bad IQ is bothering me a lot.

 

[GHG]

The engine is a great tool in the right hands.

But the issue here is that with ease of use comes ease of incompetence.

 

[Schmendrick]

The hardware and the devs are the issue, not the engine.
A lot of its features when dialed up are simply too heavy for mainstream hardware including, or especially, consoles and in turn need such aggressive dynamic scaling/reconstruction that the IQ goes to shit.
And finally the decision on how to balance the features and their settings out for optimal results, that is a dev issue.

Another issue - UE5 games don't look any better than UE4 titles yet are so much more hardware intensive.

Nonsense...

 

[winjer]

UE5 uses a lot of effects at half res or lower and then relies on temporal lending to try to disguise it.
It also doesn't help that by default, UE5 enables motion blur, film grain and chromatic aberration.

 

[Gonzito]

Yeah, I hate it

 

[GHG]

UE5 uses a lot of effects at half res or lower and then relies on temporal lending to try to disguise it.
It also doesn't help that by default, UE5 enables motion blur, film grain and chromatic aberration.

Yep most developers just use the engine/plugin defaults and roll with it.

Makes me wonder if most of these guys are even capable of making the necessary adjustments and optimisations for their intended use cases.

When you look at the work sammilucia has done, where she manages to improve the visuals of unreal engine games (stalker 2, silent hill 2, robocop, etc) while simultaneously improving performance, it becomes clear that many developers don't actually have a clue about the inner workings and intricacies of the engine they are building their game on.

 

[GymWolf]

On the right hands and with an enough powerful hardware it's the best looking engine around so...no.

 

[CompleteGlobalSaturation]

On the right hands and with a enough powerful hardware is the best looking engine around so...no.

Which games make good use of UE5?

 

[GymWolf]

Which games make good use of UE5?

Hb2
Wukong
Sh2 remake
Robocop
Stalker 2

To name a few.

This is a cheap AA with ue5



To quote my dude slimysnake, expedition 33 is made in ue5 by a bunch of people out of the college and it looks splendid.

No other engine give small AA teams the chance to rival big AAA devs.

 

[deeptech]

Awful engine IMO, big reason is devs need to be very good at making games work and look great, which most of them can't. Stuttering in Arkham City back then, stuttering still today.

 

[CompleteGlobalSaturation]

Hb2
Wukong
Sh2 remake
Robocop
Stalker 2

To name a few.

This is a cheap AA with ue5

Wukong looks garbage in motion, sorry. Very grainy, dithered and low quality appearance.

I'll have to try Hellblade 2 on gamepass to see if it has a similar fate.

 

[GymWolf]

Wukong looks garbage in motion, sorry. Very grainy, dithered and low quality appearance.

That's why i said that you need a powerfull hardware because on my pc it's arguably the best looking game of the year after hb2 (both on ue5), sorry.

 

[FeralEcho]

Older games on UE3 and UE4 and custom engines of the past generation look so much crisper and detailed than this garbage. It's baffling how this is the main engine of the generation when it destroys image quality as well as performance.

It's like it has an automatic vasseline smear over the game's graphics when devs use this pos engine.

And let's not forget the dithering...feels like I'm draggin my face on a chainlink fence when watching hair in UE5.

 

[Gaiff]

Another issue - UE5 games don't look any better than UE4 titles yet are so much more hardware intensive.

Yeah, so I can disregard your post. It’s the usual whining about UE5. Next you’ll tell us how games looked better 10 years ago on PS4 hardware.

Older games on UE3 and UE4 and custom engines of the past generation look so much crisper and detailed than this garbage.

You guys really gotta stop with bad takes like this.

 

[GHG]

Which games make good use of UE5?

Outside of Fortnite - Satisfactory, Talos Principle 2, Jusant and Hellblade 2 spring to mind.

Incidentally, the latter is a game in the same vein of the PS5 tech demo that was created, so it's a very controlled experience with nothing too complex going on in terms of interactivity, And the former 3 are from indie studios who were clearly willing to get their hands dirty.

 

[CompleteGlobalSaturation]

That's why i said that you need a powerfull hardware because on my pc it's arguably the best looking game of the year after hb2 (both on ue5), sorry.

9800X3D, 64GB RAM and RTX 4080 paired to an LG OLED. Powerful enough?

 

[bitbydeath]

Yeah, so I can disregard your post. It’s the usual whining about UE5. Next you’ll tell us how games looked better 10 years ago on PS4 hardware.

They had soultrollololol

 

[CompleteGlobalSaturation]

Yeah, so I can disregard your post. It’s the usual whining about UE5. Next you’ll tell us how games looked better 10 years ago on PS4 hardware.

Hyperbolic but truthfully very little visual improvement for such a huge performance penalty for a lot of titles released in our current gen.

Hellblade 2 does look incredible mind you - best looking game flat out I have seen so far.

 

[hemo memo]

Unreal Engine 5 is like buying off-the-shelf products—quick, flashy, and accessible but lacking finesse. Other engines, like tailored clothes, take more effort but offer far better optimization and precision for unique projects. UE5’s ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach often falls short when aiming for technical excellence.

 

[T4keD0wN]

Another issue - UE5 games don't look any better than UE4 titles yet are so much more hardware intensive.

Hard disagree on that, UE5 looks way better and runs better too (much better CPU utilisation and frametime consistency)

Only UE4 game that comes close to UE5 ones is Calisto Protocol

UE4 is just a mess and UE5 is a massive improvement over it, although most games still suck compared to the ones made by proprietary engine pros like Insomniac or Guerrilla Games.

But your point is right overall, UE5 AA on default just seems to be built with high res and sharpening in mind, the amount of shitty post processing on top makes it even worse. Could always try using reshade or freestyle clarity filter as a band aid.

 

[violence]

Having just played a little bit of ninja gaiden 2 black, blurry image quality seems to be a pattern with UE5. Maybe developers will be better at using UE5 by the time UE6 is released

 

[GHG]

That's why i said that you need a powerfull hardware because on my pc it's arguably the best looking game of the year after hb2 (both on ue5), sorry.

Wukong, while not being the worst example, is not very well optimised.

 

[owandeseis]

Silent Hill 2 is probably the second best game i've played graphics wise, after Cyberpunk, and it wasn't too demanding.

Avowed also looks very clean on the latest videos, even if i really dislike it artistically.

So i disagree, tho it's not my favourite engine ofc.

 

[Gaiff]

Hyperbolic but truthfully very little visual improvement for such a huge performance penalty for a lot of titles released in our current gen.

Hellblade 2 does look incredible mind you - best looking game flat out I have seen so far.

It’s devs not knowing what they’re doing. I bet you the next Gears will be an incredible showpiece that runs well. UE5 is a tool, of rather, a set of tools. Just because you use a drill to hammer nails doesn’t mean the drill is no good. That’s the issue with UE5.

 

[bitbydeath]

I'll have to try Hellblade 2 on gamepass to see if it has a similar fate.

5 mins later…

Hellblade 2 does look incredible mind you - best looking game flat out I have seen so far.

 

[GymWolf]

Wukong, while not being the worst example, is not very well optimised.

It could run a bit better but other than some rare stuttering i didn't had much problem with my build.

OF course it's easy to say that with a 4080 but like i said in my premise, this is not an engine for weak hardwares.

 

[analog_future]

Haven't had that issue at all in the UE5 games I've played

 

[GymWolf]

9800X3D, 64GB RAM and RTX 4080 paired to an LG OLED. Powerful enough?

Yes, similar to my build.

And i had no iq problems with wukong or any other ue5 game, sorry.

And i'm straight up and iq whore, i dislike the order because of its shitty iq on console and i can't physically go down from dlss quality4k, even balanced is enough of a loss for me.

P.s. it has been a while, maybe there was some dithering in the fur of some enemies and some grainy effects here and there but 90% of the experience was great.

 

[Wildebeest]

Unreal Engine is where the "Keep It Simple Stupid" principle goes to die. A lot of features there that are impossible to just turn off or down, that you need an extreme amount of domain expertise and correct hardware to get working right.

 

[Angry_Megalodon]

Infinity Nikki looks fantastic. I'm impressed by the physics, shadows, water, animations, draw distance, etc. Hard to appreciate on a small screen, but on OLED it's stunning. One of the most beautiful games using U5.

 

[Redneckerz]

Robocop: Rogue City says hi.
(Yes, i leave the guitar typo in.)

 

[Black_Stride]

55% upscale?
Frame Generation?
Why is my IQ not pristine?

UE5 games dont look any better than UE4 games but are more intensive.
Mate.

 

[Black_Stride]

Wukong, while not being the worst example, is not very well optimised.

Why do people keep saying this.
The NV branch of Unreal with the settings cranked is just that expensive.
While you could argue the cinematic setting isnt "that" much better, its still using technologies that are meant to stress your hardware to death.
Granted this is an older version of UE5 which is why the foliage isnt perfect but it just that the settings are expensive.


Its like Crysis all over again cept even dumber, NO your PC is not powerful enough to run this game maxed out at 4K120.
Thats not a lack of optimization its literally futureproofing the game by including settings that are beyond what current hardware can do.

 

[rodrigolfp]

• Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden
• Dead by Daylight
• The Finals
• Everspace 2
• Lords of the Fallen (2023 video game)
• Marvel Rivals
• Remnant 2
• Tekken 8

To name a few more. Holy hyperbole, OP.

 

[Gaiff]

Why do people keep saying this.
The NV branch of Unreal with the settings cranked is just that expensive.
While you could argue the cinematic setting isnt "that" much better, its still using technologies that are meant to stress your hardware to death.
Granted this is an older version of UE5 which is why the foliage isnt perfect but it just that the settings are expensive.


Its like Crysis all over again cept even dumber, NO your PC is not powerful enough to run this game maxed out at 4K120.
Thats not a lack of optimization its literally futureproofing the game by including settings that are beyond what current hardware can do.

I dunno about that. Those guys implemented a 45fps cap on PS5 and frame generation to reach 60 when AMD specifically recommends enabling frame generation at 60fps or above.

They can’t even reach a consistent 60 on PS5 at 1080p and the game doesn’t look amazing there.

 

[Hudo]

Me every Monday morning.

 

[CompleteGlobalSaturation]

5 mins later…

YouTube is quite accessible. Try it.

I'll try downloading it tonight to see how it fares with native rendering.

 

[Corporal.Hicks]

Dynamic GI and Nanite make a huge difference, I have never seen such detailed game in UE4. Even the ground surface is extremely detailed in hellblade 2:

But I agree that the UE5 has a somewhat disappointing image quality. Hellblade 2 looked like an upscaled game to me and I had to edit the engine.ini (and turn off the lens distortion) to make the image look sharp and now I'm very happy (although my screenshots are a little bit oversharpened because these sharpening settings were adjusted for this blurry lens filter, so without it the image is too sharp with default sharpening settings).

As for motion clarity, for some strange reason, UE5 games have shimmering/noise around characters (especially around hair) during movement. This was particularly noticeable in Black Myth Wukong. At first I thought that maybe DLSS or FG are to blame, but after testing different settings I realized it wasnt the case. However, I found that turning off motion blur drastically reduced the shimmering (to an acceptable level). I have noticed similar thing in other UE5 games, so it seems motion blur doest work well in UE5 games.

The image quality in Black Myth Wukong is also not very good because this game uses an extreme amount of sharpening mask. I advise you to turn off the sharpening in the game and use reshade.

Default ingame sharpening 4K DLAA maxed out settings. The image is oversharpened.

https://i.ibb.co/q5zWbzd/default-DLAA.jpg

Without in-game sharpening, the image is too soft.

https://i.ibb.co/p2KSxGd/No-sharpening-DLAA.jpg

With reshade sharpening the image is sharp without looking overshparpened

https://i.ibb.co/1fwYP03/reshade-DLAA.jpg

With reshade even DLSS performance is still sharp

https://i.ibb.co/QCqd0bv/reshade-DLSSP.jpg

UE5 games require some tweaking, but I'm happy with the image quality with my settings.

 

[HJuggernaut]

unreal 3 best engine

 

[CompleteGlobalSaturation]

Dynamic GI and Nanite make a huge difference, I have never seen such detailed game in UE4. Even the ground surface is extremely detailed in hellblade 2:

But I agree that the UE5 has a somewhat disappointing image quality. Hellblade 2 looked like an upscaled game to me and I had to edit the engine.ini (and turn off the lens distortion) to make the image look sharp and now I'm very happy (although my screenshots are a little bit oversharpened because these sharpening settings were adjusted for this blurry lens filter, so without it the image is too sharp with default sharpening settings).

As for motion clarity, for some strange reason, UE5 games have shimmering/noise around characters (especially around hair) during movement. This was particularly noticeable in Black Myth Wukong. At first I thought that maybe DLSS or FG are to blame, but after testing different settings I realized it wasnt the case. However, I found that turning off motion blur drastically reduced the shimmering (to an acceptable level). I have noticed similar thing in other UE5 games, so it seems motion blur doest work well in UE5 games.

The image quality in Black Myth Wukong is also not very good because this game uses an extreme amount of sharpening mask. I advise you to turn off the sharpening in the game and use reshade.

Default ingame sharpening 4K DLAA maxed out settings. The image is oversharpened.

https://i.ibb.co/q5zWbzd/default-DLAA.jpg

Without in-game sharpening, the image is too soft.

https://i.ibb.co/p2KSxGd/No-sharpening-DLAA.jpg

With reshade sharpening the image is sharp without looking overshparpened

https://i.ibb.co/1fwYP03/reshade-DLAA.jpg

With reshade even DLSS performance is still sharp

https://i.ibb.co/QCqd0bv/reshade-DLSSP.jpg

UE5 games require some tweaking, but I'm happy with the image quality with my settings.

Wukong looks good when I take screenshots but it just falls apart in motion to me. There is very obvious dithering in motion as you've just mentioned when I'm attacking enemies. The overall fidelity of effects also appears to be at a low resolution.

 

[Madserb2023]

Tekken 8 looks amazing and it uses Unreal Engine 5 but it doesn't use nanite and lumen. It is those specific features especially lumen that the consoles can't cope with unless resolution is sub 1080p. Just don't use them or just use nanite perhaps.

 

[Trilobit]

Dynamic GI and Nanite make a huge difference, I have never seen such detailed game in UE4. Even the ground surface is extremely detailed in hellblade 2:

Maybe you and UE5 should get a room.

 

[GHG]

Why do people keep saying this.
The NV branch of Unreal with the settings cranked is just that expensive.
While you could argue the cinematic setting isnt "that" much better, its still using technologies that are meant to stress your hardware to death.
Granted this is an older version of UE5 which is why the foliage isnt perfect but it just that the settings are expensive.


Its like Crysis all over again cept even dumber, NO your PC is not powerful enough to run this game maxed out at 4K120.
Thats not a lack of optimization its literally futureproofing the game by including settings that are beyond what current hardware can do.

You can say what you want but like I referenced above, modders have managed to optimise the game by making engine tweaks at no visual cost:

BMWK - SPF Redux

The ultimate solution to low performance and stuttering without reducing visual quality (plus extras).

www.nexusmods.com

They have literally taken the stock unreal engine 5 and run with it instead of making the necessary engine tweaks and adjustments to suit to the needs of their game, which is exactly what's been discussed at length throughout this thread.

This is nothing like a crysis situation, it falls firmly on the feet of the developers who are using this engine as if its a one size fits all out of the box solution.

I dunno about that. Those guys implemented a 45fps cap on PS5 and frame generation to reach 60 when AMD specifically recommends enabling frame generation at 60fps or above.

They can’t even reach a consistent 60 on PS5 at 1080p and the game doesn’t look amazing there.

Yep, it was evident that it was predominantly a bunch of guys proficient in developing for mobile platforms cutting their teeth in the PC/Console development world for the first time:

I'm surprised DF didn't put two and two together here.

90hz refresh rates are common on modern mobile phones and as a result there's been an increase in the number of mobile games that have a 45fps mode to support those screens.

Considering gamescience are a new studio, and the most popular gaming (and game dev) platform in China is the mobile phone, it's not unlikely that they will have a bunch of ex-mobile devs there working on this game. It's like they've just gone and thrown in a 45fps mode because it's what they are used to without considering why they offer 45fps modes for mobile games.

 

[Greirat]

Horrible IQ in motion

This is why they've gotten away with it. People take a settled screenshot and it doesn't look THAT bad. But once it moves...

 

[winjer]

I don't tihnk some people here understand that the issues with image quality in UE5 is in motion, because of temporal instability.
Screenshots don't show that.

 

[Corporal.Hicks]

Wukong looks good when I take screenshots but it just falls apart in motion to me. There is very obvious dithering in motion as you've just mentioned when I'm attacking enemies. The overall fidelity of effects also appears to be at a low resolution.

That's why I disabled motion blur and turned off in-game sharpening. With my settings image quality during movement doesn't look all that different compared to other games.

 

[Shadowplay1979]

Am I the only one who thinks UE5 games look shit?

Horrible IQ in motion.

Black Myth Wukong looks incredibly grainy and dithered. Made even worse by the use of Framegen.

Sadly the performance of the game is so shit I have to use DLSS slider set at 55% to have a target frame rate of 80FPS at 4K.

Edit: I stand corrected

Some other games utilising UE5 maintain good clarity in motion. Marvel Rivals looks exceptionally clean.

I think this is inherent to BM Wukong. Too bad because this bad IQ is bothering me a lot. I tried changing it to DLSS Quality and this did not help either.

Game artist here, lemme tell you how this works.

UE is amazing and one of the best things to ever happen to game artists. You can make and do just about anything. However engines should be tuned proprietarily for each game.

That being said, the biggest problem is that games look amazing until its time to tune everything down to work on a console. Unfortunately that still has meant ps4 for a long time, you would think...sure make the gamae amazing for pc...then just tune it down. However unfortunately its not how development works. It gets tuned to ps5 first while keeping ps4 in mind. Now that weve moved away from ps4 only very recently...developers will still be making things for a new ps4 for next ten years unfortunately...its dreadful. I wish i could say the industry is pushing boundries, but we are all locked to sony and nintendo owning large portions of the market.

 

[Sentenza]

Wukong looks garbage in motion, sorry. Very grainy, dithered and low quality appearance.

Are you talking about the Playstation version?

 

[Fbh]

The diminishing returns engine.
Runs like shit on lower end hardware and consoles, and doesn't look good enough to justify the expensive hardware needed to run it properly.

Almost every UE5 game for me is an easy skip. I'll buy them at some point in the future for $20 on future hardware.
I'll probably make an exception for Expedition 33 because it looks cool, is by a small team and 30fps isn't a deal breaker in a turn based game.

Maybe next gen it will be decent when you don't need $1500 worth of hardware to run it decently without murdering the framerate and IQ in the process. But by then we'll probably have UE6 and it's going to be the same story again.

 

[CompleteGlobalSaturation]

Are you talking about the Playstation version?

PC.