Unreal Engine

General

Unreal Engine is a real-time, 3D authoring tool used across industries, including but not limited to Gaming, Architecture, Automobile and Transportation, and Live Events. Unreal Engine 4 is their latest, production-ready release, but you can currently check out Unreal Engine 5 in Early Access for game development. It is anticipated that Unreal Engine 5 will be fully released in early 2022.

Features

Unreal Engine 4 comes with the following features and more:

• Media production pipeline integrations
• Python scripting
• Unreal editor - content authoring and game level development
• Grass tool - scalable foliage
• Character animation tools
• Live Link data streaming
• Virtual texturing
• Real-time photo rasterizing and ray tracing
• Niagra visual effects editor
• Chaos physics system
• Gameplay and interactivity authoring
• Efficient, multi-display rendering
• Marketplace of assets
• Perforce integration for versioning
• C++ API

Unreal Engine 5 will come with the following features:

• Nanite - a virtualized, micropolygon geometry system that reduces time for making geometric detail and does not impact the frame rate or fidelity
• Lumen - a global, dynamic lighting system that is immediately console-ready
• World Partition - a grid system where only the necessary cells are streamed
• One File Per Actor - real-time collaboration between developers without stepping on each other's toes
• Data Layers - make multiple versions of a scene (like daytime and nightime)
• Control Rig - quickly make rigs and share with multiple characters
• Pose Browser - save and apply poses as assets
• Full Body-IK - for natural movement
• Motion Warping - adjust a character's root motion based on targets with a single animation
• MetaSounds - complete control over audio DSP graph generation
• Enhanced editor UI and workflow - summon and stow the content browser, new Create button on the main toolbar for placing actors, and more

History

October 6, 2016 - During Oculus Connect 3, Oculus VR announced that they will cover the royalty fees for any Unreal Engine app in their store, up to the first $5 million in gross revenue. Developers using Unreal Engine normally pay 5% of their gross revenue. This announcement means that they can save up to $250,000.