The short answer: Dying Light: The Beast is built on Techland’s in‑house C‑Engine. It is the same technology family used for Dying Light 2, expanded and modernized for this standalone project—not Unreal Engine 5.

What C‑Engine is (and why you’ll hear “Chrome Engine” mentioned)

C‑Engine is Techland’s proprietary toolchain and runtime, developed as a successor to the studio’s earlier Chrome Engine used in titles like Dying Light (2015). Over time, the studio refactored and rebranded its tech stack to support current‑gen rendering, streaming, and gameplay systems. That evolution produced C‑Engine, which powered Dying Light 2 and now The Beast. In other words, C‑Engine descends from Chrome Engine but is the developer’s modern, actively maintained internal engine.

Why The Beast didn’t switch to UE5

The Beast began life as an expansion concept for Dying Light 2 before growing into a standalone release. Reusing and upgrading the DL2 technology base is therefore practical: it preserves the studio’s content pipeline (animation, parkour systems, AI, combat), shortens iteration time for designers and artists, and minimizes porting risk across PC and console SKUs. Sticking with C‑Engine also lets Techland optimize features for its specific gameplay goals—fast traversal, dense melee interactions, and a day–night loop—without adopting a new engine’s workflows mid‑project.

Graphics features and vendor tech

At launch, The Beast supports DLSS 4 with Multi Frame Generation and NVIDIA Reflex. Techland has also promoted ray‑traced options covering ambient occlusion, global illumination, reflections, and shadows. Feature availability can vary by patch; if a setting is temporarily absent, it typically returns through updates, so it’s worth checking the in‑game video menu and patch notes after each update.

Beyond DLSS, the game includes modern upscaling and frame‑generation paths to reduce GPU load at higher resolutions. These are especially useful when you’re targeting high refresh rates or enabling expensive effects like high‑quality shadows and reflections.

How this compares to Dying Light 2

  • Engine lineage: Both games use Techland’s C‑Engine; The Beast runs on a newer, more feature‑complete iteration.
  • Rendering approach: The Beast keeps the series’ resolution‑sensitive post‑processing and temporal techniques, with additional vendor paths (e.g., DLSS 4 + Frame Generation) that were not present at Dying Light 2’s original launch.
  • Pipeline fit: Parkour, melee, AI, and streaming systems continue to be tailored for large outdoor spaces with a synchronized day–night cycle and dynamic weather.

Common points of confusion

  • “Is it Unreal Engine 5?” No. The Beast is not a UE5 title; it uses Techland’s proprietary C‑Engine.
  • “Chrome Engine 7/9?” Community posts sometimes cite Chrome Engine version numbers, but Techland’s current stack for these games is referred to as C‑Engine—an evolution of, not a simple rebrand of, the older Chrome Engine line.

What this means for PC players

  • Expect performance to scale strongly with internal render resolution. Using the built‑in upscalers is an effective way to maintain high frame rates at 1440p and 4K.
  • Ray‑traced options, where available, substantially increase GPU workload. Pairing them with an upscaler or frame generation is recommended.
  • Latency‑sensitive play benefits from enabling Reflex on supported NVIDIA GPUs.

The Beast continues Techland’s C‑Engine path rather than switching to a third‑party engine. You get a tech stack purpose‑built for Dying Light’s blend of first‑person parkour and melee, plus current‑gen features like DLSS 4 with Multi Frame Generation, Reflex, and ray‑traced effects that are rolling out via updates.