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MotoGP 25 developer Milestone made a huge step forward for the future of the franchise with the long-awaited shift from Unreal Engine 4 to Unreal Engine 5. As the foundation for the studio’s high-speed racing games going forward, the studio has plans for massive graphical updates in the future.
Speaking to VideoGamer after the launch of its latest game, Milestone explained that the studio is looking to expand its use of Unreal Engine 5 features. Right now, the studio’s use of the engine doesn’t make use of features like Lumen for more realistic, advanced lighting or Nanite, which allows for extremely detailed models without significant performance issues.
MotoGP 25 doesn’t have major UE5 features, but next year might
“It was more about managing the transition about the shaders and how some tools work but the two engines go more or less in continuity.” explained game director Matteo Pezotti. “[It] improves some aspects of the game, particularly on the vegetation… but we have big room for improvement in the next year. This was just the first step.”
As an annual franchise, there is a lot of asset reuse between MotoGP 24 and MotoGP 25 , and ensuring that existing and new assets worked well in the upgraded engine was a huge focus of the latest release. However, this means that there is a large wealth of upgrades the team can bring to future instalments of the racing game.
“The transition gave us the chance to improve what was already there, because, of course, [we] had to bring the assets from Unreal Engine 4 and bring them to Unreal Engine 5,” added lead game designer Stefano Talarico. “We have a lot of room of improvement, but we are very happy with the result.”
Pezotti explained that adding Lumen lighting and reflections and Nanite geometry to the game in the future is “something we are already thinking about”. However, with the extreme efficiency of creating an annual franchise, there’s no guarantee that the technology will be implemented this time next year.
MotoGP 25 is only the first step of the game’s, hopefully, long future, it’s a strong foundation for years of technical improvements.
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