Tides of Annihilation is built on Unreal Engine 5, using the engine's flagship rendering technologies to create its vision of a shattered supernatural London and the mystical realm of Avalon. The game uses Nanite for geometry and Lumen for global illumination and reflections.
Nanite
Nanite is UE5's virtualized geometry system that allows extremely detailed 3D assets without traditional polygon budgets. In Tides of Annihilation, Nanite handles the dense, complex environments of ruined London, where modern architecture is intertwined with supernatural overgrowth. The Colossal Knights, which players climb and explore, benefit from Nanite's ability to render detailed surfaces at massive scale.
Lumen
Lumen provides real-time global illumination and reflections. This is especially visible in the Mirror Space Folded Realm sequences, where light bounces off shifting surfaces as the architecture transforms. The interplay between natural and supernatural lighting, mixing London's overcast sky with Avalon's otherworldly glow, relies heavily on Lumen.
PS5 Pro support
The PlayStation 5 Pro version uses PSSR (PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution) to achieve:
Higher output resolution compared to the base PS5
Ray tracing for reflections and global illumination
Improved image fidelity and visual detail
Stable 60fps gameplay
NVIDIA DLSS 4
The PC version supports DLSS 4 with Multi Frame Generation. NVIDIA's promotional materials for DLSS 4 feature Tides of Annihilation as one of the flagship titles. Performance benchmarks show:
Approximately 80 FPS in 4K at maximum settings without DLSS
Over 300 FPS in 4K at maximum settings on a GeForce RTX 5090 with DLSS 4
Xbox optimization
The game is fully optimized for Xbox Series X|S and will support Xbox Play Anywhere (XPA) in the future, allowing cross-play between Xbox consoles and PC.