Recently, the director ofBlack Myth: Wukonghas made it clear that the lack ofan Xbox releasehas nothing to do with an exclusivity deal but stems from parity issues between the Xbox Series S and X. This is only one of the reasonsBlack Myth: Wukongisn’t likely to see an Xbox release anytime soon, as it has struggled to run efficiently even on more powerful platforms. Unfortunately, performance issues in Unreal Engine 5 have become somewhat common for photorealistic games.
While Xbox Series S parity has certainly been a drag on this generation of consoles, it isn’t the main problem thatBlack Myth: Wukongfaces in its optimization efforts. From abuilt-in sharpening filter that makes the game’s otherwise beautiful artwork look more artificial to widespread stuttering issues,the gorgeous visuals come with some significant caveats. These struggles raise concerns about the larger capacity for advanced graphics and photorealistic games in Unreal Engine 5, and it isn’t a good sign for upcoming major releases that are making the switch to Unreal Engine 5 and attempting more realistic art styles.
Black Myth: Wukong Doesn’t Only Struggle On Series S
Optimization For Black Myth: Wukong Is Rough On All Platforms
Xbox Series S parity has been a major limiting factor for Microsoft’s current-gen consoles, even with some of the most popular games available. TakeBaldur’s Gate 3,for example, which had to reach a compromise that resulted in removing the cooperative multiplayer split-screen feature from the Xbox Series S version in order to compensate for the console’s abysmal 10GB of RAM. Unfortunately,these sort of tweaks and compromises don’t seem possible forBlack Myth: Wukong,and reaching complete parity on Xbox Series S is another problem to add to the game’s daunting optimization goals.
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Black Myth: Wukongis just one of many photorealistic games made in Unreal Engine 5 that struggles with optimization, and Xbox Series S parity is only a piece of a larger puzzle preventing the game’s release on Xbox. Given the performance concerns on PC,developers seem to have a larger optimization problemthat stems from graphics quality outpacing hardware capabilities across the board.Black Myth: Wukongwill push even the best PC hardware to the extremes, as noted in benchmarks byDigital Trends, and can require serious tweaks to graphics settings.
Although individual mileage seems to heavily vary, somePlayStation 5 users report particularly severestuttering and frame rate issues, as noted in a Reddit thread byFast-Wolverine-830.
Even when the developers behindBlack Myth: Wukong, Game Science, finally optimize the game for Xbox Series S, it will likely face the same (if not worse) performance problems.The stuttering and frame rate drops during combat are extremely frustrating, especially given how difficult many of the intricately designed bosses are. The elaborately detailed world ofBlack Myth: Wukongis pushing the boundaries of what consoles are capable of, and when looking at the requirements for optimal performance on PC, the Xbox Series S launch will probably face much worse stuttering and frame rate drops if not fully optimized properly.
There’s One Obvious Release Day For Black Myth: Wukong On Xbox
While we have yet to see when Black Myth: Wukong will be released on Xbox, a series of recent events makes one day seem like the obvious choice.
Despite the above problem areas,Black Myth: Wukongis an absolutely beautiful game with some of the most unique and visually stunning bosses and settings ever produced in Unreal Engine 5. If the graphics performed as intended without introducing stuttering or frame rate drops,the visual aspects of the game would undoubtedly be worth the investment.It’s hard to say whether Game Science might be stretched too thin — they are a staff of just a couple of hundred employees at most — or if the engine itself is to blame. Either way, these performance issues distract from the game’s otherwise incredible qualities.
Unreal Engine 5 Photorealism Is An Uphill Battle
Unreal Engine 3 And 4 Were Not Limited By Art Styles
As more and more games push toward increasingly photorealistic art styles in Unreal Engine 5, there will be further issues surrounding the limitations of the platforms they’re eventually released on. This was less of an issue in previous iterations of Unreal Engine, where games such asDishonoredandBioshock Infinitewere able to compensate for limitationswith unique, albeit more cartoonish, artistic styles. Increasingly realistic, high-fidelity artwork appears to come at great cost to performance, and developers working in Unreal Engine 5 for future projects will want to consider the pros and cons of photorealism in their games.
“There is a balance to be found between artistic design choices and the limitations of platform hardware.”
To be clear, the issue isn’t necessarily with photorealism itself, as this shift seems to be less strenuous for projects created in different engines, such as the newIndiana Jones and the Great Circle, developed in id Tech 7.It’s also clear that photorealistic gamescanbe optimized extremely wellin Unreal Engine 5, though examples are few and far between,such asThe Invincible. There is a balance to be found between artistic design choices and the limitations of platform hardware, andBlack Myth: Wukonghas yet to strike that balance in its optimization efforts.
Great Graphics Are About More Than Just Fidelity
Immersion Does Not Have To Depend On Realism
With more major games being made in Unreal Engine 5, like thenextHaloinstallment, it’s hard to get excited knowing a shift toward high-fidelity graphics that emphasize photorealism could come at the cost of serious performance craters. Fidelity and realism are not the only things that matter when it comes to immersive and compelling art design, and more simplified,less-realistic artwork has equal potential to be visually stunningwithout detriment to performance quality.Black Myth: Wukongis a great example of high-fidelity graphics that are extremely hard to optimize for their intended platforms.
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Future projects intent on using Unreal Engine 5 will need to seriously consider the pros and cons of high-fidelity graphics and how manageable it is to optimize photorealistic art for both console and PC.Black Myth: Wukongfaces an uphill optimization battle due to its emphasis on photorealistic artworkand cinematics, and while these elements are compelling, many players would settle for lower-quality graphics if it meant a reduction in stuttering. Even afterBlack Myth: Wukongis finally fully optimized for Xbox Series S, it will still likely face the same performance problems as it currently does on PlayStation 5 and PC.
