Valorant is swapping to a new engine but what does it mean? Unreal 5 port explained

Riot has confirmed Valorant is swapping over to Unreal Engine 5 in the near future, but what exactly does this mean for the popular tactical shooter? Here’s what players need to know.

Video game engines serve as the foundation. Every mechanic, unique feature, or design element is all built out thanks to the tools available through the chosen engine. While some studios opt to build their own engines in-house like Naughty Dog with their proprietary tech pushing industry-leading visuals, others instead rely on existing engines to build their games.

The latter is the case for Valorant, as Riot chose to use Unreal Engine, software created by Epic Games. At the time of the game’s development, Unreal Engine 4 (UE4) was in focus, but that’s now changing. Unreal Engine 5 (UE5) was first showcased back in 2020 and released to developers in 2022.

Now that Valorant has been on the market for four years, Riot is looking to update its engine to get all the bells and whistles included in the newest version of Unreal. But what exactly does that mean for the game moving forward? What should fans expect as this transition gets underway? Here’s the full rundown on what we know.

Why is Valorant swapping to Unreal Engine 5?

As Valorant clearly isn’t the most visually appealing game ever made, you may be wondering why exactly devs want to pivot to a new engine. Taking the stage at Unreal Fest 2024, Valorant’s Studio Head Anna Donlan agreed with the sentiment.

“While I imagine folks would have many positive things to say about the game, graphics-forward is likely not one of them,” Donlan joked.

Compared to other ambitious, big-budget productions with “day-night cycles or sprawling worlds,” Valorant doesn’t hold a candle. Instead, Unreal Engine helps in other ways, as Riot prioritizes “player orientation,” she explained. “What Unreal has brought to Valorant is the very strongest of foundations.”

Riot Games

Valorant obviously isn’t the most visually stunning game ever made, but the swap to UE5 isn’t about pushing graphics.

Offering up a recent example, Donlan explained how Valorant’s port over to console was made possible thanks to UE4’s existing console support. “For Riot, we had never launched a live service game on console before.”

Not wanting to “build an entirely new team” for the port, Riot was instead able to leverage console tools within Unreal Engine to make it all happen. It’s this flexibility that proves paramount to the dev team and exactly why they’re making the switch.

Will Valorant change with pivot to UE5?

Simply seeking more agility, being able to flex in different areas, is the core benefit of swapping to UE5, according to Donlan. As a result, players shouldn’t notice any discernable differences in the moment-to-moment Valorant experience as the transition gets underway.

“I could not rattle off UE5 features that are transforming Val as we know it,” Donlan admitted. Instead, the “necessary” swap is to broaden horizons and open doors for future possibilities.

With Valorant currently on UE 4.27, the team has “squeezed literally everything we could get out of UE4, so now we make the move to UE5.”

“This upgrade is not going to significantly change how Val looks or performs, at least not right away. There are many developers who are very excited about what UE5 can do for us in the future.

“Maybe those devs are working on something I can’t talk about. Maybe those devs are thinking about ways to expand the Val universe into new playable experiences.”

Teasing possible expansion into other genres, perhaps with other full-fledged games or just limited-time modes within Valorant itself, it’s clear the jump to UE5 will give devs more freedom to experiment.

Donlan takes the stage at the 1:28:21 mark below.

So, in the short term, don’t expect Valorant to look or play any better as a result of the jump to UE5. While it’s possible graphics may improve years down the line, the focus for now is more experimental as devs toy with new ideas to evolve the IP.