this post was submitted on 21 Apr 2025
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Don't think we know yet. Based on earlier leaks, the thought is that Unreal Engine 5 is involved somehow, but there is uncertainty about whether or not it is full-on in UE5 or if UE5 is just being used as a rendering layer. If Bethesda's own engine is still used as the core of the game, we don't know if that means simply reworking the original Oblivion code, or if they updated everything to the latest version used for Starfield.
What we can assume is that, even if the original engine is used, there will need to be a good deal of work done to update it regardless, since it is still a 32-bit application that would need to be rewritten for proper 64-bit support. And a lot of the game mechanics, physics, movement, etc. would need to be updated to work with the UE5 rendering layer if that is indeed how it's working.
They can't just be rendering on top, the visuals would clash with collisions. Some of the assets we've seen in captures are different enough from their legacy counterparts that they would cause all sorts of issues while playing. Also, they wouldn't be able to increase the forest density, because trees have collisions. So it's at least a remaster within gamebryo (which seems most likely to me, because it's tailor-made for this kind of game) or a more profound remake within another engine (needless troubles, if you ask me, most unlikely).
It wouldn't be the first sort of game that Microsoft has remastered in that style, though.
The Halo 1 and 2 remasters used a separate rendering layer over the original game which included updated art assets, and a setting to toggle between the original graphics and the updated ones on the fly. For the most part it was fine, but there were a couple of (primarily out of bounds) areas where the original collision did not always align with the updated geometry.
But I am hoping that it is more than just a simple rendering layer over the original game, because like you said it would require more hands-on work to improve things like forest density and interior clutter. It would look odd if they just increased the polygon count of foliage while still leaving it as sparse in places as the original. At least based on the leaked screenshots, the side-by-sides do give the impression that things have moved slightly and additional objects have been added, so extra rendering layer or not, my guess is that edits to the original game are also still involved (and likely means there won't be a Halo-style graphics toggle button).
It's not gamebryo. It's built in unreal.
oh really ? we know that ?