NEURAL DAWN

Neural Dawn is a technical showcase for the future of mobile gaming. Built in partnership with Arm, it is the world’s first mobile game to use Unreal Engine MegaLights, delivering desktop-class, fully ray-traced dynamic lighting with hundreds of shadow-casting lights, made possible through Arm Neural Technology.

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A screenshot from Neural Dawn; the world's first game to use Unreal Engine MegaLights on mobile, created by Sumo Digital in partnership with Arm using Arm Neural Technology. The screenshot showcases the player standing in an interior environment filled with metallic platforms and crates. The player character is a humanoid robot illuminated by blue lights surrounding. Behind the player are three hovering mini robots, one that appears to have wings and two others who's inner section resembles a triangle with illuminated edges.
A screenshot from Neural Dawn; the world's first game to use Unreal Engine MegaLights on mobile, created by Sumo Digital in partnership with Arm using Arm Neural Technology. The screenshot showcases an interior cavern environment filled with dramatic lighting ranging from purple to golden yellow streaks of light that weave through the rocky cavern, illuminating the large pillars and flooring. In the centre section of the picture, there seems to be a long black cable running across an gap between platforms, attached to a golden man-made light that resembles a honeycomb pattern.
A screenshot from Neural Dawn; the world's first game to use Unreal Engine MegaLights on mobile, created by Sumo Digital in partnership with Arm using Arm Neural Technology. The player character, a humanoid robot, stands within a dimly lit cavern illuminated by a light blue light. It is accompanied by four flying smaller robots positioned behind it. The humanoid robot looks into the depths of the cavern where further man-made machines stand, their purpose and use unclear.

Overview

Arm approached Sumo to create a game that could showcase the potential of what Arm Neural Technology could achieve for mobile graphics. Working in partnership with Arm, Sumo fully recognised the new technology’s potential, developing a full game experience that demonstrates the future of mobile gaming, while the hardware itself was still taking shape. 

“Together with Sumo Digital, we’re delivering something that exceeded even our own expectations. The team’s creativity, technical excellence and collaborative approach are instrumental in bringing our vision to life.” – Drew Henry, Executive Vice President, Arm. 

 

Project Details

Platforms: Mobile (including foldables and tablets) that adopt Arm Mali G2-Ultra NX GPU, including: vivo X500 Pro, vivo X500 Pro Max, OPPO Find X10 Pro Max, Xiaomi 18 Fold, Xiaomi Tab 9 Pro Max

Genre: Adventure

Partner: Arm

Service: Full Development

Engine: Unreal Engine 5

A screenshot from Neural Dawn; the world's first game to use Unreal Engine MegaLights on mobile, created by Sumo Digital in partnership with Arm using Arm Neural Technology. The screenshot showcases the player character, a humanoid robot jumping over a large gap between two metal floored surfaces in a dimly lit cave environment. The player is followed by two yellow flying robots known as 'bees' within the game.

The Ask

Sumo was tasked with:

  • Developing a game to showcase Arm Neural Technology on mobile.
  • Integrating Arm’s Neural Graphics plugin for Unreal Engine with Neural Super Sampling (NSS) and Neural Frame Rate Upscaling (NFRU), working to the specifications of hardware still in development.
  • Designing around mobile thermal demands, collaborating closely with Arm as a technology partner.

Our Involvement

  • Sumo was approached with a challenge and an opportunity to be a first mover in mobile gaming and worked with Arm to find a solution to best showcase Arm Neural Technology.
  • Developed a complete game experience to showcase Arm Neural Technology.
  • Established the platform’s technical boundaries through an extended pre-production phase.
  • Collaborated closely with Arm, adapting communication to a technology partner’s needs.
A screenshot from Neural Dawn; the world's first game to use Unreal Engine MegaLights on mobile, created by Sumo Digital in partnership with Arm using Arm Neural Technology. The screenshot showcases the player character, a humanoid robot, standing atop a mossy cliff inside a cavern, illuminated by glowing mushrooms of different varieties as well as man-made lights that trail across the flooring attached to a cable, that light up the floor with a strong green light. The character looks to a metallic wall with a large reinforced door.
A screenshot from Neural Dawn; the world's first game to use Unreal Engine MegaLights on mobile, created by Sumo Digital in partnership with Arm using Arm Neural Technology. The screenshot showcases a humanoid robot character on top of a flying metallic platform with headlights at the front. They appear to be in a dimly lit cavern, the headlines shining strongly on the surrounding cave walls.

Technology and Rendering

  • Integrated Arm’s Neural Graphics plugin for Unreal Engine with Nueral Super Sampling and Denoising (NSSD) and Neural Frame Rate Upscaling (NFRU).
  • Implemented ray tracing and Unreal Engine MegaLights for dynamic lighting on mobile.
  • Designed interactive lighting that reveals paths and transforms environments in response to player actions.
  • Developed custom tooling to manage large number of lights.

Performance and Risk

  • Created and maintained a risk management plan, updated as new hardware information emerged.
  • Tested on previous generations of devices to anticipate performance on target hardware.
  • Built replay tools to test across resolutions, settings, and pre-release hardware specifications. 
  • Approached themal throttling as a design parameter, pushing performance as far as possible and including support for foldable devices.
A screenshot from Neural Dawn; the world's first game to use Unreal Engine MegaLights on mobile, created by Sumo Digital in partnership with Arm using Arm Neural Technology. The player character, a humanoid robot, strides towards a dramatic looking dark stone with a circular section missing from its centre. Inside the circular section is a red mass, almost resembling a heart, with red electricity zapping it.
A screenshot from Neural Dawn; the world's first game to use Unreal Engine MegaLights on mobile, created by Sumo Digital in partnership with Arm using Arm Neural Technology. The screenshot showcases the player character, a humanoid robot made up of interlocking metal components, looking towards a floating smaller robot. They are both standing in an interior cavern environment, dimly lit except for a strong red-hued light that casts their shadow onto the rocky cavern wall behind.

Impact

Our work on Neural Dawn demonstrates Sumo’s ability to:

  • Develop and work collaboratively on solutions when a challenge arises.
  • Develop alongside emerging technology.
  • Deliver desktop-class visual quality on mobile.
  • Co-create with partners, shaping tools through real production feedback.
  • Plan for uncertainty through early research, active risk management and contingency. 
  • Turn technical constraints into creative opportunities.
  • Work as a clear, reliable partner for clients outside traditional games publishing.

“Neural Dawn gave us the opportunity to treat neural graphics as part of the game-development process, rather than as a technology added at the end. By combining Arm Neural Technology with Unreal Engine MegaLights and ray tracing, our team explored new storytelling opportunities that made use of cinematic lighting and new visual experiences while working within the realities of a mobile power budget.” – Andy Stewart, CEO at Sumo.

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