In Patch 7.7.0, Behaviour Interactive quietly ported Dead by Daylight to the Unreal Engine 5. However, things haven’t turned out as expected, and players have been largely disappointed with the game’s graphics following the update, with some claiming it made the game look worse.
An April 24 Reddit thread posted by user Mitokovo compared the previous and current versions of Dead by Daylight on Unreal Engine 4 and 5. They looked at the same areas in both and sought to highlight the key differences in graphics, which mostly concerned the lighting. The UE5 version of DBD looks more grey, has thicker fog, and lacks some contrast compared to UE4. The lights also don’t work the same, and either due to a bug or feature, are significantly less pronounced. Those replying generally think the update made the game “washed out,” as one user said, and didn’t add anything significant.
“I knew I wasn’t crazy,” said one user who played the game post-update and noticed things being off. “Without images, the game feels more…washed out and bright. Certain elements look stiff and dull like something is missing,” wrote another. “Looks worse,” was the plain summation of someone else, and many agreed with the sentiment.
DBD Patch 7.7.0 didn’t only upgrade the game to a new engine (it wasn’t even mentioned in the patch notes) but added new mechanics, updated the menus a bit, and brought tons of new stuff to the in-game store. However, it seems the new graphics have rubbed many the wrong way, especially with how engine upgrades are often paraded as being massive game-changing updates. “You just added more fog to the maps,” one player said.
I think the UE5 update was largely underwhelming, and sometimes outright bad. The loading times have increased since Patch 7.7.0 dropped, particularly the “Initializing Shaders” stuff, which recent games often include (for no good reason).
Behaviour has yet to fully exploit UE5, though, and due to the engine’s expanded capabilities, we’ll likely see improved content down the line.
