Trying to beat Replika visuals – tips for mobile shaders & lighting without Lumen?

CrazyMind-inter
Wed, 14 May 2025 17:29:46 +0000
Rendering

Hey folks

We’re working on a mobile app in UE5 that’s basically aiming to beat Replika – at least visually
We’re going all-in on real-time lighting, since Lumen is still experimental and too unstable for mobile.

The goal is to get the best possible look on mid-range Android and iOS devices – while keeping performance solid.
So I’d love to hear from anyone who has tips or experience with:

Mobile-friendly shaders that still look decent (e.g. fake SSS, nice skin shading, ambient stuff)

Lighting tricks for softer shadows and better depth – without Lumen

Tools or workflows to profile and optimize the visual side (GPU usage, shading cost, etc.)

We’re already pushing skeletal meshes, lip-sync and emotions on the characters, so every bit of performance counts
Really looking forward to any advice, links or examples you can share!

Cheers,
Lukas

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