There's a new Steam beta branch called gi-tech-demo, which is a version of Estranged: The Departure with only some of the levels included to showcase dynamic global illumination in Unreal Engine 5.
The Prelude level (Chapter 1 from the menu) has been adapted to allow you to control the position of the sun in the sky with the keyboard, and allow you to toggle it on and off.
All lighting in this beta is calculated in real-time, while the live version of Estranged: The Departure uses pre-computed lighting.
The live version of Estranged: The Departure won't change to use this technique, this is purely a tech demo to showcase the latest global illumination technology in Unreal Engine 5, which released into Early Access on May 26th.
To check out the tech demo, pick the gi-tech-demo branch from the "Betas" tab on the "Properties" menu for Estranged: The Departure. You need Windows, and a graphics card which supports DirectX 11 and above. This branch will not be kept updated, and does not focus on stability/performance.
To get updates like these and screenshots from development, join Discord: https://discord.gg/estranged Thank you for playing Estranged! Alan