PSSR 2 🕹️, Unity Steam Support 💻, MagicDawn GI 🤖
🎮 Engine & Platform Power-Ups
Inside Ark’s Future: UE5.7 Upgrade, Tides of Fortune, and Lua Tools
In a GDC 2026 chat, Jeremy Stieglitz breaks down how Ark: Survival Ascended is evolving technically and creatively. The live game is being migrated to Unreal Engine 5.7 for big performance gains, especially via voxel-based Nanite culling. On the content side, the Tides of Fortune expansion introduces miles of ocean, ship combat, and improved buoyancy, while the built-in World Creator lets players on PC, Xbox, and PlayStation build and script levels using UE-like tools and Lua. A dragon-focused, sky-island expansion is also on the horizon.
Inside PSSR 2: How PS5 Pro Upscaling Powers 4K/60 Visuals
Sony is rolling out an upgraded version of its AI-powered PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR) upscaler to PS5 Pro, boosting image quality and stability in games like Silent Hill f, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Dragon Age: The Veilguard, and Alan Wake 2. The new PSSR refines its neural reconstruction to better restore fine detail, reduce flicker and ghosting, and keep motion clear, all while preserving frame rate. A new system-level toggle lets players enable improved PSSR quality in supported games without waiting for dedicated patches. Upcoming titles such as Crimson Desert and Cyberpunk 2077 are already lining up to use the tech for high-fidelity 4K/60-style experiences with features like ray tracing.
🚀 Tools, Support & Industry Moves
Laid Off? JangaFX Offers EmberGen, LiquiGen & More Free for 6 Months
JangaFX, makers of EmberGen, LiquiGen, IlluGen, and GeoGen, has made its Layoff Assistance Program a permanent part of the company. Artists affected by industry layoffs can apply for up to six months of free access to the full tool suite to rebuild portfolios and stay sharp. Having already helped over 100 creators, JangaFX’s CEO is taking a clear stand against the industry’s layoff culture by offering tangible, long-term support.
Unity Adds Native Steam & Steam Deck Support, Boosts Linux Performance
Unity is making it much easier to ship games to Steam. In its GDC product update, the company announced native, official support for Steam, Steam Deck, and Steam Machine directly in the engine via a built-in platform toolkit. Unity is also rolling out targeted Linux runtime enhancements to boost native performance and reduce dependence on Proton. The piece also points toward Valve’s new Steam hardware lineup and ecosystem features for developers.
🌊 Creative FX & Rendering Techniques
Create 2D Slime and Water Metaballs in Unity URP
This Unity 6.3 URP tutorial shows how to turn a basic waterfall particle system into blobby, slime-like metaballs. A custom Render Feature with Render Graph accumulates particles into a texture, which is then sampled in a fullscreen Shader Graph. By running smoothstep over the alpha channel, the shader fuses overlapping particles into a single liquid mass. The walkthrough also adds a clean, adjustable outline for a polished, stylized liquid effect.
Tencent Unveils MagicDawn: AI-Powered GI for Unreal, Unity and Godot
Tencent has officially revealed MagicDawn, an AI-driven global illumination and audio solution for game developers, at GDC 2026. Designed to deliver AAA-level lighting and high-fidelity spatial audio, it plugs into Unreal, Unity, and Godot, and targets both PC and mobile. A cloud-based SaaS renderer promises up to 40x efficiency gains in specific lighting workflows. Tencent showcased the tech in open-world MMO Roco Kingdom: World, highlighting a 64 km² map with seamless time-of-day transitions.
✨ Godot Shaders & Visual Tricks
Godot Artist Shares Stunning Parallax Portal Shader and Learning Resources
3D artist and Godot shader specialist Binbun has released a mesmerizing parallax portal effect built entirely in Godot. Using shape and noise textures, the shader maps multiple parallax layers to fake convincing depth, and the full setup is available for creators to download on itch.io.
Ultra-Simple, Fast Blur Shader in Godot Using Mipmaps
Technical artist Binbun shows how to create a sleek blur effect in Godot with just a few lines of shader code. By sampling the screen texture with `textureLod` and leveraging Godot’s automatic mipmaps, you can crank up blur without tanking performance. The setup is simple: add a ShaderMaterial to any CanvasItem and expose a `blur_amount` uniform for easy control. The article also points to more of Binbun’s Godot shader tutorials, including toon shading and UV-based shapes.