Fighting the Frame Budget: Stage Optimization Lessons from 2XKO | Unreal Fest Chicago 2026

In this session recorded at Unreal Fest Chicago 2026, Riot Games walks through the different stages of optimization used in ‘2XKO’, their free-to-play fighting game built on Unreal Engine 5.

The talk explores the technical challenges involved in delivering high-fidelity stylized visuals while hitting strict CPU and GPU budgets on low-end devices. Riot walks through real-world production case studies to show what can be bottleneck performance, how to find where the problems are, and how to fix them using Unreal Engine’s tools.

Watch to learn practical strategies to enforce best practices and ensure their games run efficiently across a wide range of devices. The presentation goes into the collaborative stage optimization workflow used by artists, technical artists, and engineers to balance visual fidelity with strict framerate targets.

From setting up automated performance tests and implementing creative fake lighting solutions to executing game-specific engine optimizations, Riot explores the tools and tricks Unreal Engine offers that you can apply to hit your performance targets—without sacrificing quality.

Find out more about using Unreal Engine to develop games here: unrealengine.com/uses/games

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