New Graphic Engine - A New Era!

Hello everyone!

For this first devblog of the 2025 season, we will address the most important topic of the year: the transition to a new graphics engine. Some might say, "Finally, it's about time!"—and they’d be right. The TDF license is shifting gears at last. After many years of loyal service, our in-house technology is bowing out to make way for Unreal Engine 5.


While the visual aspect of the Tour de France game was indeed outdated, our proprietary tool did offer certain advantages not necessarily found in competing engines. Switching engines is a critical and risky decision, as this transition entails a massive workload. If the choice is good, the technology can support us for many years; if it's bad, the lifespan is shortened, forcing us to spend more time on technical aspects rather than on gameplay and game content.

The goal of this devblog is not to dive into Unreal's programming details but rather to reflect on this choice, what it entails, what it allows, and where it takes us.


Before embarking on such a major project, the first step is to clearly define our needs to find the tool that best meets our technical criteria. Each type of game has its own specific requirements, and different engines excel in different areas. While our main goal is to enhance the game's visual quality, it is equally essential that this new engine can support both Pro Cycling Manager (PCM) and Tour de France (TDF). It must also allow us to retain existing content, such as race stages, AI, and modding for PCM (a topic that will be covered in more detail in a dedicated blog post). This ensures that both games can continue to be released alongside the transition.

The decision was quickly made to use an external solution—an engine that would not be developed and updated in-house as before.

This thought process began back in 2018, and at that time, our choice was not Unreal Engine. If we put things into perspective, Epic’s technology was still heavily specialized in FPS games with confined environments. This did not suit our needs, as we required expansive landscapes spanning hundreds of kilometers with numerous elements spread across the map. Another competitor at the time was better suited to these requirements and shared characteristics similar to our in-house tools, allowing for a relatively quick transition with minor adaptations (and, of course, vastly improved graphics).

By the end of 2019, we had a "next-gen" prototype using this new engine, and a launch for TDF 2021 seemed feasible. The timing even aligned with the release of the new PS5 and Xbox Series X. Unfortunately, things didn’t go as planned.


The first challenge when working with external tools is dependency on external decisions. The engine we had chosen was eventually acquired by another company. Initially, this had no major impact—until we were informed that many core aspects would be rebuilt from scratch.

This decision by our partner forced us to delay the release of this engine, as the necessary console development tools were no longer available. Not only was our planned 2021 release postponed, but we also had to invest additional effort into adapting our technology for next-gen consoles. Our hope was that this would be natively supported by the new engine. One of the reasons we chose not to develop the engine in-house was precisely to avoid these generational transitions. Instead of getting closer to our goal, it felt like we were moving further away.

A 2022 release was then planned, hoping that our partner would provide the necessary console development tools as soon as possible. Meanwhile, we continued adapting our 3D models to meet new visual standards. However, we soon realized that these essential tools would not be ready in time.

Faced with such uncertainty, we reassessed the available game engines, and in the span of four years, Epic had made significant improvements to Unreal Engine with version 5. Many of the initial constraints that made Unreal unsuitable for our game had been addressed. Though there were still adaptations to be made, UE5 had become a much better fit for our needs.

The main drawback was the cost. For a small team like ours, the licensing fees were quite substantial. However, a solution came from elsewhere.


In parallel with these challenges, Cyanide became a Nacon studio in 2018. This acquisition did not affect our technical choices, as they were still justified and validated by our new publisher. However, by 2022, when we had no clear timeline for releasing a next-gen TDF, being part of Nacon opened new opportunities.

Since Nacon’s publishing strategy favors Unreal Engine, we received the green light in 2023 to transition to it. Unfortunately, this meant yet another technological shift. The work done on the abandoned engine and the porting of our historical code to PS5 and Xbox Series helped accelerate the transition to UE5. However, we still had to rework certain internal processes (since UE5 is not yet the ultimate engine for vast open environments) and delay the release of a visually enhanced game once again.


Your growing demand for visual improvements was piling up, but at that point, we had no other viable alternative.

Now, all of that is behind us. After nearly six years (including two full years dedicated to porting to UE), the long-awaited new engine is finally here and available to you.


One crucial but invisible aspect of this technological shift is the production process. Over the past few years, we’ve worked hard to improve game stability at launch. With Unreal, we had to rebuild this workflow to establish a stable working environment. This required a significant investment of time, but it was essential to ensure proper testing and timely releases.


Another major goal of switching to UE5 was to unify TDF and PCM under a single technology. Previously, the two games used different engines, meaning fixes or improvements in one did not automatically benefit the other. This transition should significantly improve productivity in the coming years.

From a technical perspective, TDF25 is not yet fully utilizing Unreal Engine 5. While UE5 offers many powerful features, fully leveraging them will take time. The transition is not complete (but that doesn’t stop the game from running! 😉). Our initial focus has been on improving visuals, particularly through advanced lighting techniques.


We converted all 3D objects to new standards for more natural lighting. Some assets had to be entirely remodeled, as their previous versions no longer met modern standards. This has been a long process running in parallel with annual game releases.

With Unreal Engine, race stages now appear more realistic, with detailed shadows, better reflections, and vast panoramic views of mountainous landscapes filled with diverse vegetation. We've also improved various effects, such as water surfaces, wind particles, and more. But the best way to showcase Unreal’s advantages is simply to see the game in motion.


However, this transition also required sacrifices. Due to UE’s technical constraints and our chosen approach to dual image rendering, we were unable to maintain Splitscreen modes. Making them compatible with UE5 would have required a considerable amount of time, so we decided to suspend them for now.


Our primary goal for this first year with Unreal was to achieve a graphical leap forward while preserving as much content as possible. Fully leveraging Unreal’s potential would have delayed the visual upgrade further, which we wanted to avoid. The transition is ongoing, and we still have many improvements to make.

Our next priority is enhancing the cyclist models and animations for greater realism. Weather effects, their impact on gameplay, and their visual representation are also high on our list.


Additionally, to unify TDF and PCM, we must rebuild old tools like the Stage Editor, a key feature for modders. This is a major challenge but will allow for many future improvements.

The 2025 editions are just a step in this major overhaul, but a crucial and long-awaited one.



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