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After shaky beginnings, Unreal Engine 4 is gaining traction as one of the most popular multi-platform game engines on the market, so it's a touch surprising that Epic Games itself has taken so long to release a game supporting all current-gen consoles and PC. In some respects, Fortnite's turnout with UE4 is similar to the results from titles from other developers - so yes, PS4 has a more powerful GPU, resulting in a lift to visual quality. However, elsewhere there are surprises: as things stand, Fortnite plays better on Xbox One.However, don't go into Fortnite expecting an intense graphical showcase designed to push the new engine to its limits - this is no UE4 equivalent to last-gen wonders like Gears of War or even Unreal Tournament. Instead, Fortnite aims for more stylised, cartoon visuals for its intriguing combination of tower defence and third-person shooting gameplay. Its distinct visual style integrates nicely with UE4, with Epic's excellent temporal anti-aliasing solution in particular producing a soft but smooth presentation, light on intricate detail but bright and vibrant, coming alive more through accomplished animation.
Technologically, the cards are stacked in favour of the PlayStation 4 platforms. The base PS4 release aims for 1080p resolution and 30 frames per second gameplay, while Xbox One lowers the pixel-count to the anticipated 900p. The end result is a little more softness on the Microsoft console, but it's only really apparent on more distant detail in head-to-head comparisons. UE4's extensive post-process pipeline is a great leveller here, and anisotropic filtering is similar on both systems, giving a slightly soupy look to ground textures viewed at oblique angles. Differences are slight otherwise, but there is some sparing evidence of pared back environment detail on Xbox One - though visuals overall do look much the same.
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