Yesterday, Epic Games released a preview version of Unreal Engine 5.3—users can now try out the latest batch of improvements, as well as some new features. Epic's blurb Lumen boasts that their software engineers have refined "the workflows and capabilities of core features"—namely Nanite, and Path Tracing. Optimizations have resulted in "more control over performance" and overall better-looking visuals. Epic's own Fortnite, Layers of Fear (Bloober Team) and Remnant 2 (Gunfire Games) are the only currently released games running on Unreal Engine 5. Epic first showcased this technology back in 2020, with plenty of game development studios signing up to use it—but they have been slow in adapting to the feature-rich engine. In Remnant 2's case , Gunfire chose to not implement Lumen at launch.

Newly introduced experimental features include an upgraded particle rendering system—users are granted access to tool that can "create volumetrics such as smoke and fire directly inside Unreal." Epic's notes also mention that a Skeletal Editor has been added, for in-engine character weight and skinning work. Preview version 5.3 grants full support for Orthographic Rendering—useful in the fields of "architecture plus manufacturing visualizations, and stylistic games projects." Users will also see improvements in the Panel Cloth Editor and ML Cloth simulation system.