Epic Citadel - how is it possible?

Epic Citadel (I mean the tech demo made with the UDK years ago) for mobile devices has a really nice performance. It has 30 fps+ even on 1 ghz, single core processor. It is pretty incredible, that the demo features even reflections and some (baked in?) shadows as well.

Now, with UE4, testing a simple scene, which setup is the following:

  • default scene, remove clouds and SkySphere
  • leave Light Source, Player Start, Template map floor untouched, (I have also made a big sphere, with two-sided unlit texture.)
  • build lighting

Results: 15-25 fps on Nexus 7

So, how is Epic Citadel possible? Does the UDK have a significantly better performance over UE4?

How do I achieve the same look in UE4?

Epic Citadel is primarily a static world. Baked lights and such. UDK also runs much lighter than ue4. Ue4 has a lot of effects on by default.

Yep, the whole map uses static lighting and the reflection you see in the cathedral is actually a trick that imitates reflective surface; that interior space is mirrored upside down and the floor material is translucent. You can actually check it out in the editor if you download and install UDK.

Thanks for the fast responses. Really awesome trick to achieve reflection btw.

Hope it helped! Yes it is a neat trick. You should try the latest UDK. It is one of the sample scenes.