Ever since its reveal in 2020, Black Fantasy: Wukong has been an alluring challenge. Developer Recreation Science has been surprisingly open compared to different AAA studios and the sport’s obvious ambitions have been strengthened with every press launch: a hero-focused motion recreation retelling the story of Journey to the West, and a graphical tour de power utilizing the most recent Unreal Engine options. The truth is, on PC Wukong makes use of the Nvidia department of UE5 to allow full ray tracing, promising an much more spectacular presentation. With the complete recreation in hand, it is time to see if Recreation Science has fulfilled the graphical promise of that first trailer, how the RT options work on PC, and what optimised settings can be utilized to ship a easy expertise on a spread of {hardware}. Sufficient monkey enterprise then, let’s get proper into it.
From the second the sport begins up, it is clear that Recreation Science has delivered a degree of graphical constancy that surpasses that of the preliminary trailer. The dazzling intro to the sport dazzles, with titanic legendary beings looming over you and a whole space replete with distinctive volumetric rendering that is sadly uncommon within the fashionable age.
With every sprint, employees swipe and little bit of motion, the principle character and his nemesis distort and transfer the bodily quantity of fog that they discover themselves in. Past Housemarque’s Returnal and a few legacy PhysX titles, actual physicalised particles like this are uncommon, and Recreation Science made positive to make use of this GPU-intensive impact successfully so as to add a mystical flourish to recreation moments and character entrances.
Attention-grabbing particle results akin to these might be discovered all through the sport, accentuating fight, hinting in the direction of enemy assault patterns and rewarding you for efficiently defeating an enemy. Typically particle results appear like cheesy, out-of-place add-ons, however right here I really feel like they’re at all times nicely located within the recreation’s theme and environments.
The areas you progress by means of in Black Fantasy: Wukong are additionally an actual spotlight of the sport’s presentation – and there are a variety of technical elements which actually deliver all of them collectively. The primary is an Unreal Engine 5 hallmark, Nanite, which permits surfaces and structure to show a really excessive degree of geometric element. At a mean digital camera peak and distance within the recreation, you’d discover it tough to to find any geometric edges on virtually any floor as a result of Nanite’s automated and ever-changing degree of element (LOD). This additionally prevents intrusive pop-in from LOD adjustments on virtually all the geometry within the recreation, offering a extra secure presentation than prior-gen titles.
Sadly, Nanite is not used for foliage – possible a consequence of growth on UE 5.0 quite than 5.1 that added this characteristic – so bushes, shrubbery and leaves showcase extra conventional LOD adjustments as you method them.
This additionally has a knock-on impact, specifically that the sport forgoes utilizing Digital Shadow Maps (VSMs) except you are utilizing the complete RT possibility. VSMs are far more costly when used on non-Nanite geometry and there is loads of foliage in most areas, so the excision of VSMs is logical. Because of this, with out Full RT on, there are extra shadow points than in different UE5 titles. There is a very distinct shadow cascade line you’ll be able to see on shadows close to the principle character, and any shadows after a sure distance are inclined to closely blob out or present different instabilities. I presume this may have an effect on the PS5 model as nicely, however fortunately in case you have an ultra-high-end PC you need to use the Full RT possibility to resolve this explicit problem on the expense of a point of efficiency.
Despite these minor detrimental facets of the presentation, Nanite permits the sport’s property to be seen at their finest; it is the inspiration upon which the sport’s extraordinarily dense environments are constructed upon. The glue holding the setting collectively although is the ray tracing: with out utilizing full RT, the sport utilises software program Lumen on PC for diffuse international illumination and specular reflections. With Full RT on, ReSTIR-based path tracing provides in further lighting element.
An enormous portion of the sport takes place out of direct daylight, and because of Lumen or path tracing, all the craggy overhangs, shadowy corners and sun-lit entrances look unbelievable. The oblique lighting element is mostly very good, and I really feel plenty of areas would not work with out using RT to finish the lighting. That is one other stable Lumen showcase, that is for positive.
The complete RT setting enhances the lighting additional, with enhancements to the diffuse lighting seen on rougher surfaces. As the complete RT path utilises very high-quality geometry as an alternative of signed distance fields (SDFs), it will possibly exhibit extra advantageous element like smaller vegetation or leaves which are in any other case solely captured in screen-space and subsequently can look monotone in shading or considerably undershaded. With full RT, practically all the advantageous element geometry is there and being ray traced in opposition to, so you will notice advantageous element shadowing or bounce lighting inside such vegetation, making them higher located of their environment for a higher-fidelity last look. Should you take the time to breathe within the environments, it is a welcome addition.
One other visible improve from full RT comes within the type of much less overdarkening, as SDFs are so blobby that greater sparse issues like timber are inclined to over-obscure gentle, giving some areas an excessively darkish look. With full RT, the better accuracy means much less over-darkening and extra sky lighting coming by means of, typically brightening up these areas with per-pixel precision. This distinction is delicate although, and with out side-by-side comparisons software program Lumen is ready to cross for full RT on this respect.
The larger distinction with full RT regards reflections. Rougher supplies like stone are extra accuractely represented because the tracing is finished with fewer simplifications, typically permitting you to see extra floor element in any given scene. The largest distinction although is discovered on water. With software program Lumen, nearly all of reflection element is captured with SSR, so characters and particles are lacking from reflections, whereas objects mirrored exterior of display screen house are blobby and replace slowly. You additionally get disocclusion artefacts when objects on-screen are obscured.
Full RT solves nearly all of these screen-space limitations, eradicating disocclusion artefacts and making certain reflections are absolutely populated with characters and results and replace at full charge. With the character leaping, absolute zero points there with him obscuring the background – no disappearing reflections. I solely discovered one occasion the place the geometry being traced in opposition to was misaligned with what was being mirrored, with a tree showing with lacking branches in reflection, however this did not have an effect on the identical tree mannequin in later areas. That is nice, because it means the complete RT possibility on this recreation practically at all times appears superior to software program Lumen with none evident areas of oversight or trade-offs.
The ultimate addition within the full RT mode is real-time ray-guided caustics. Any water physique within the recreation basically exhibits off a dynamic caustic impact, the place gentle is redirected by the water floor. Meaning you’ll be able to see water relighting the world round it, or undulating patterns on riverbeds that align with the water’s floor deformation. Your character’s actions in water change the caustic presentation too, making it morph and ripple similar to the water above. It completely elevates the water’s presentation in my eyes and makes plenty of the boss fights look further particular as all the animations trigger these secondary animation results within the setting as a result of caustics shifting round.
The distinction versus software program lumen relies on how depth of the water and the way a lot it is in shadow; a well-lit shallow pool’s caustics contribute much more lighting to the scene, dramatically altering the water’s look. Actual-time caustic lighting may be very uncommon in video games, and I applaud the builders for including it in a method which boosts the presentation in such a significant method.
Past the bullet level engine tech options, there are a number of different areas the place Black Fantasy: Wukong excels. Environmental interplay is one in every of them, with delicate but efficient reactivity whenever you stroll amongst foliage or destroy surroundings like fences and handrails. Character rendering is one other spotlight right here, a pleasant bonus on an in any other case already beautiful bundle. The designs are fantastical and barely try and look human, however when mixed with cinematic thrives like depth of subject, characters can look breathtaking within the (comparatively few) cutscenes. Fortunately, enemies have related ranges of element in open gameplay too, with ultra-high-quality textures, geometry and a heck of numerous cool secondary animation with particles or fur.
As you’ll be able to in all probability inform by now, Black Fantasy: Wukong is an incredible-looking recreation and probably the greatest of the 12 months – however that does not imply every part is ideal. Nanite provides numerous element, however some textures aren’t at all times as much as par and seem noticeably stretched and blurry.
One other problem is that the sport’s sharpening has been cranked as much as the max – whether or not or not you are utilizing upscalers like DLSS – and infrequently objects flush in opposition to vivid backgrounds have a noticeably outlined look to them which is not nice. This contributes to a form of crunchy look to the sport’s visuals, one thing that is exacerbated by Wukong’s intensive use of temporal dithering. Hair can look dithered and aliased, and the identical goes for the sport’s movement blur. All of this contributes to the sport trying much less secure than it must. I might actually like an choice to undither some stuff right here, even when it comes at a efficiency value.
Talking of which, the most important problem right here is certainly efficiency – and, sadly, it is the identical kind that always afflicts Unreal Engine releases. I can a minimum of fortunately report that the sport has a prolonged shader precompilation sequence on boot – and even on a high-end CPU just like the Ryzen 7 7800X3D, it takes a very long time and subsequently must be doing fairly a bit. Because of this, I did not encounter any intensive shader compilation stutters in-game.
As an alternative, the difficulty is traversal stutter. It seems like principally each Unreal Engine recreation suffers from this, and whereas it’s not the worst I’ve seen, each space is heralded with a frame-time spike – and even a number of such spikes in a row. This interrupts the stream of the sport, and might even be felt throughout boss encounters, disrupted precise gameplay quite than simply traversal. Enabling full RT appears to lead to proportionally bigger stutters, too. There are even stutters that do not appear clearly linked to getting into a brand new space, whether or not or not full RT is engaged.
Total, issues aren’t as dangerous as they’re in Jedi Survivor for instance, but it surely’s nonetheless annoying to maintain encountering these frame-time spikes when attempting to benefit from the recreation. Unreal Engine is my bane in the intervening time, and this recreation is one other so as to add to the listing of “stutter battle” casualties.
A compounding problem is that the complete RT possibility additionally provides frame-time spikes of its personal, making the sport much less easy than it might be. That is true even with the high-end Ryzen 7 7800X3D, so attaining a secure 60fps with full RT more-or-less calls for the 7800X3D or one other equally performant CPU. Secondly, to get a easy presentation you a VRR-capable show and in addition cap the frame-rate at round 60fps with full RT on. Should you use an uncapped frame-rate with DLSS 3 body gen, for instance, the disparity between frame-times turns into uncomfortably massive. In the long run, solely the most important PCs on the market ought to use full RT, primarily as a result of these CPU efficiency necessities. For everybody else, I might recommend utilizing the lower-quality software program Lumen answer as an alternative regardless of its constancy compromises, which is a disgrace.
I’ve one last efficiency tip too: if you wish to get higher efficiency on your GPU, don’t use the sport’s cinematic high quality preset. Because the title suggests, this preset is generally hidden in Unreal Engine titles and is meant to be used in recreation cinematics; the excessive preset tends to be a better-optimised model in Unreal Engine 5. We did not have fairly sufficient time to ship a full set of optimised settings right this moment, however beginning on the excessive preset on a high-end setup ought to depart you in good stead.
With that, that is nearly all I can say about Black Fantasy: Wukong on PC. It is an extremely beautiful recreation, but it surely’s not with out its points. I actually need to see the developer do as a lot as potential to enhance frame-time stability, because the gameplay and graphical presentation are sadly let down by frame-time spikes that may bitter the expertise for a very good proportion of gamers. From what I perceive, the sport will probably be getting patches, and I assume that will probably be one thing they may need to attempt to tackle. In any other case, I hope Recreation Science think about including DLSS ray reconstruction to the combination, as the sport does not at the moment use it. Past that, this recreation’s heavy profile on PC does make me marvel what the PS5 model appears like, and we’re endeavouring to reply that query as quickly as we will.
