Rockfish Games has big plans for EVERSPACE 2 going forward and wants to be able to support the game for many years. As part of that herculean effort, the team has decided to upgrade the game’s engine from Unreal Engine 4 to Unreal Engine 5 — no small task, that is for sure. The upgrade will be part of the game’s Spring Update and will be free to all current and future owners of the game.
The team posted a lengthy blog on the Steam page that not only outlines why the team is taking on such a monumental task but also delves into some of the complexities and issues that have been run into during the transition.
Why are we doing this? We don’t plan to use many of the amazing features such as Nanite and Lumen in EVERSPACE 2 as tests we’ve performed in-studio have shown that current solutions in-game already have better optimization, but having them available does open doors for the future. Mainly, we’re looking at this as a way to help future-proof the game, so we have less difficulty bringing updates and expansion content down the road. We want to be able to support EVERSPACE 2 for a long time.
It’s not a small task…
The post further explores some of the things the team has run into, including how “all kinds of things” are being broken during the process. According to the blog, any one of the hundreds of systems it takes to create a game like EVERSPACE 2 can be broken and any number of things can go wrong when upgrading the game’s engine. To keep player frustration to a minimum, however, the team is taking its time and doing things right before deploying the update into the game.
Check out the full post on the EVERSPACE 2 Steam page.
About EVERSPACE 2
EVERSPACE 2 is a fast-paced single-player spaceship shooter with exploration in space and on planets, tons of loot, RPG elements, mining, and crafting. Experience an exciting sci-fi story set in a vivid, handcrafted open world full of secrets, puzzles, and perils.
