Nanite and Lumen are two of the most innovative features of Unreal Engine 5, the latest version of the popular game engine developed by Epic Games. Nanite and Lumen enable game developers to create stunningly realistic and dynamic graphics for next-generation games, without compromising on performance or quality.

Nanite: Virtualized Micro-Polygon Geometry

Nanite is a technology that allows game developers to use high-quality 3D models with billions of polygons in their games, without any loss of detail or fidelity. Nanite virtualizes the geometry of the models, meaning that it only renders the polygons that are visible to the camera, at the optimal resolution for each pixel. This way, Nanite eliminates the need for manual optimization, level-of-detail (LOD) systems, or normal maps, which are common techniques to reduce the complexity of 3D models.

With Nanite, game developers can import 3D models from any source, such as photogrammetry scans, CAD data, or ZBrush sculpts, and use them directly in Unreal Engine 5. Nanite also supports instancing and streaming, which means that game developers can create large and diverse worlds with minimal memory and disk space usage.

Nanite works seamlessly with other Unreal Engine 5 features, such as Lumen, World Partition, and Virtual Shadow Maps. Nanite also supports all major rendering APIs, such as DirectX 12, Vulkan, and Metal.

Lumen: Fully Dynamic Global Illumination

Lumen is a technology that enables game developers to create realistic and dynamic lighting effects in their games, without any pre-computation or baking. Lumen is a fully dynamic global illumination system that simulates how light behaves in the real world, including diffuse interreflection, indirect specular reflection, and color bleeding.

Lumen uses a combination of ray tracing and rasterization techniques to achieve high-quality and high-performance lighting. Lumen adapts to any changes in the scene or the lighting conditions, such as moving objects, time of day, or weather. Lumen also supports dynamic reflections, which can capture both static and moving objects in the scene.

Lumen is easy to use and configure for game developers. Lumen automatically handles the lighting of Nanite meshes, as well as traditional meshes and materials. Lumen also integrates with other Unreal Engine 5 features, such as Sky Atmosphere, Volumetric Clouds, and Sky Light.

Conclusion

Nanite and Lumen are two of the most impressive features of Unreal Engine 5 that will enable game developers to create next-generation games with unprecedented realism and dynamism. Nanite and Lumen are designed to work with any hardware platform that supports Unreal Engine 5, such as PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC, Mac, iOS, and Android.