Warframe Classic vs Enhanced Graphics Engine: Features, differences, and more

Looking at Warframe, one could never tell that it was originally released back in 2012. Granted, it is not the most impressive-looking MMO out there, and it cannot superseed the likes of Black Desert Online even at its graphical peak. However, it still does maintain the visual fidelity one would expect from a current-gen standard. Looking back at gameplay footage from the Vanilla (closed beta) build, it is a stark contrast to where the developers have brought the game to now.

For a decade, the visuals have kept pace with the evolution of its gameplay mechanics. Naturally, there are some nuances that the developers have to address when massively overhauling the visuals of a live-service game. Digital Extremes has chosen the middle ground option, and the game currently supports two separate render engines: Classic and Enhanced.

How are Classic and Enhanced engine different in Warframe?

Warframe Plains of Eidolon in Classic Engine (image via Digital Extremes)

As a push towards a better sync with the next-gen graphical standards, the Enhanced engine was introduced as a new option for the game in 2020. As the developers’ forum post proclaimed, it is an overhaul of the rendering engine. As such, it allows for “more accurate reflections”and utilizes greater dynamic lighting and shadowing across the entire game.

Warframe Plains of Eidolon in Enhanced Graphics engine (image via Digital Extremes)

The legacy rendering system, i.e. Classic engine, has outdated dynamic lighting modules. Every new dynamic light source in the frame essentially forces the engine to redraw all the surfaces potentially affected by it.

In an average tileset, this may be restricted to the confines of a hallway at worst. In the open worlds like Duviri, however, this would essentially mean having to re-render an entire valley.

Warframe Fortuna tileset in Classic graphics engine (image via Digital Extremes)

The new “Enhanced”renderer, on the other hand, outsources a lot of the properties of in-game models and textures to an off-screen buffer. Simply put, this makes for a far more cost-effective way to cast dynamic lights and shadows. The difference is therefore best felt in scenes with numerous dynamic shadow-casting lights – such as Nekralisk.

Warframe Fortuna tileset in Enhanced graphics engine (image via Digital Extremes)

The Enhanced engine, in a nutshell, involves:

More accurate screen-space ambient reflection.
No precombined screen-space reflections or reflection blur.
More shadowcasting lights.
Significantly more accurate shadow rendering, contact shadows, and character shadows.

There is only one known interaction where these settings affect gameplay at present. Mirage’s Eclipse in the open-world landscape may sometimes give much higher effective buff with High Quality Shaders enabled in the Enhanced engine.

Since the Duviri Paradox update, Enhanced is the default graphics mode for all players. Digital Extremes also plans to discontinue support for the Classic renderer at some point. Note that the system requriements for the Enhanced mode are much higher than the legacy requirements. The graphics renderer can be toggled anytime from either in-game Display settings or the launcher’s menu.