Arm and Sumo Digital have developed Neural Dawn, a mobile game that demonstrates the capabilities of Arm Neural Technology in next-generation Arm Mali GPUs scheduled for Arm CSS for mobile later this year. Neural Dawn is the first mobile game to use Unreal Engine MegaLights. It is built using Unreal Engine 5.6.1 and will launch exclusively on Android devices powered by the upcoming Arm Mali GPUs.
The game features 120 minutes of gameplay across four levels. It follows a research scientist in a cave network guided by light to uncover details about a collapsing civilization, a hidden plan, and the scientist’s own connection to events. Lighting plays a central role in art direction and gameplay.
The project applies Arm Neural Technology, specifically Neural Super Sampling and Denoising (NSSD) and Neural Frame Rate Upscaling (NFRU), to reduce rendering costs. This supports real-time cinematic lighting techniques, including Unreal Engine MegaLights and ray-traced effects, within mobile power constraints.
Arm Neural Technology incorporates dedicated neural accelerators in future Arm Mali GPUs. It combines graphics and neural compute to deliver experiences within a fixed power budget.
Developers can access these capabilities through Arm’s Unreal Engine plug-ins for integration into existing workflows. The game was developed by a team of 17 at Sumo Digital over 18 months using standard industry tools and workflows.
Gary Dunn, Co-CEO and COO of Sumo Digital, stated that the collaboration with Arm enabled power savings, allowing the activation of MegaLights and ray tracing while increasing game session length.
Arm is releasing the first edition of the Arm Neural Technology Playbook with guidance from the project. In July, Arm will update the Neural Graphics Development Kit to include NFRU resources and upgraded NSS resources. Developers can sign up for Early Access now.
Neural Dawn serves as a demonstration of neural graphics integration in modern game development pipelines for applications in mobile gaming.
