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Overview
The BlackSpace Engine is Pearl Abyss's proprietary game engine, built entirely from scratch for Crimson Desert. It is not based on Unreal Engine, Unity, or any third-party technology. Pearl Abyss developed it in-house to achieve the specific technical requirements of the game's seamless open world, fluid combat, and dynamic environments.
Why a custom engine
Pearl Abyss built the BlackSpace Engine because existing engines could not meet their requirements for seamless world streaming across a continent-sized map with no loading screens, real-time physics during combat, and the level of environmental destruction they wanted. The engine was purpose-built for this game's specific needs.
Rendering capabilities
The BlackSpace Engine features several notable rendering technologies:
Item | Description |
|---|---|
Native 4K at 60fps | The engine is capable of rendering at 4K resolution and 60 frames per second natively with ray tracing enabled. This is native rendering, not upscaled. |
No DLSS or FSR required | Unlike many modern games that rely on upscaling technologies like NVIDIA DLSS or AMD FSR to achieve high resolution and frame rates, the BlackSpace Engine renders natively without needing these techniques. What you see is rendered at true resolution. |
Real-time global illumination -- Light bounces and illuminates environments naturally in real time. No baked lighting. | -- |
Ray tracing | Hardware-accelerated ray tracing for reflections, shadows, and ambient occlusion. |
FSR Redstone | AMD's FSR technology is available as an optional setting for systems that need additional performance headroom, but the engine does not rely on upscaling by default. |
Particle effects toggle
Players can turn off particle effects in the settings menu. This is a player comfort option for those who find heavy visual effects distracting or overwhelming during combat. It also provides a potential performance boost on lower-end hardware.
Physics
All physics are calculated in real time. Nothing is pre-rendered or pre-baked. Character animations, environmental interactions, destructible objects, and combat physics are all computed live. This means every combat encounter plays out dynamically based on actual physics -- slamming an enemy into a wall registers as a real collision, not a scripted animation.
Destructible environments
Environments are destructible with fluid animations. Structures can be damaged and broken during combat. Walls collapse, pillars shatter, and terrain deforms. Environmental destruction affects gameplay by changing combat arenas, opening new paths, and removing cover.
World streaming
The engine streams the entire continent of Pywel seamlessly with no loading screens between regions. The world is larger than Red Dead Redemption 2 and roughly twice the size of Skyrim, and transitions between the five regions are continuous.
Platform performance
Item | Description |
|---|---|
PS5 Pro | Enhanced performance and visuals confirmed. PS5 Pro-specific enhancements will take advantage of the additional hardware capabilities. |
PC | The engine takes advantage of modern hardware for high-fidelity rendering. AMD has partnered with Pearl Abyss for a Crimson Desert bundle with Ryzen 9000 CPUs and Radeon RX 9070 GPUs. |
Xbox Series X|S | Supported at launch. |
Mac | Apple Mac platform supported. |
Optimization
After the game went gold (development complete, build ready for manufacturing), Pearl Abyss stated that remaining development time before the March 19 launch is focused entirely on optimization. This means polishing frame rates, loading times, and stability across all platforms.