Unreal Engine

Unreal Engine is a suite of integrated tools for game developers to design and build games, simulations, and visualizations. Unreal Engine is a complete suite of creation tools designed to meet ambitious artistic visions while being flexible enough to ensure success for teams of all sizes.



As an established, industry-leading engine, Unreal delivers powerful, proven performance that you can trust. From enterprise applications and cinematic experiences to high-quality games across Windows PC, console, mobile, VR and AR, the app gives you everything you need to start, ship, grow and stand out from the crowd.

What's new

Unreal Engine 5.4 has arrived, bringing a host of new features and enhancements aimed at boosting performance, visual fidelity, and productivity for game developers and creators across various industries. This release introduces the toolsets it has utilized internally to develop and launch Fortnite Chapter 5, Rocket Racing, Fortnite Festival, and LEGO Fortnite. Here are some key highlights.



Latest Unreal Engine version for PC offers new features and enhancements for creators across all industries. VFX goes next level with a slew of efficiency, quality, and ease-of-use improvements to the virtual production toolset, while other highlights include path tracing for stunning final images, out-of-the-box access to Oodle and Bink, production-ready Pixel Streaming, and much more. Enjoy!

A world-class toolset and accessible workflows empower developers to quickly iterate on ideas and see immediate results without touching a line of code, while full source code access gives everyone in the Unreal Engine for Windows community the freedom to modify and extend engine features.

Features and Highlights

Leading the Way in Virtual Reality
There are no shortcuts o creating immersive experiences that are believable to the human mind. VR requires complex scenes rendered at very high framerates. Because the app is designed for demanding applications such as AAA games, filmmaking and photoreal visualization, it meets these requirements and provides a solid foundation to build content on all VR platforms - from PC to console to mobile.

Forward Renderer: Push The Limits
In creating Robo Recall, Epic developed a rendering solution specific to VR. The Forward Renderer supports high-quality lighting features, Multisample Anti-Aliasing (MSAA), and instanced stereo rendering to produce crisp, detailed images at 90 FPS.

Build VR In VR
Reach out, grab, and manipulate objects with the power of UnrealEngine for PC at your fingertips. The full Unreal editor runs in VR with advanced motion controls so that you can build in a “what-you-see-is-what-you-get” environment. It’s the most robust, feature-complete, and capable VR development solution in the world.

Advanced Optimization
Unreal is a pure C++ engine designed for high performance. Its advanced CPU/GPU profiling tools and flexible renderer equips developers to efficiently achieve quality VR experiences.

FBX, USD, and Alembic support
Connect to media production pipelines, with support for industry standards like FBX, USD, and Alembic. First-class USD support enables users to collaborate better with team members and work in parallel. It can read a USD file from anywhere on disk without a time-consuming full import, and write back changes to it as overrides; reloading the USD payload instantly updates changes made by other users upstream

Python scripting
Integrate the engine into your pipeline and automate your workflows with full support for the industry standard Python scripting in the Unreal Editor. You can construct asset management pipelines, automate data preparation workflows, procedurally lay out content in a level, and create custom UIs to control the Unreal Editor.

The Unreal Editor
The app includes the Unreal Editor, an integrated development environment available on Linux, MacOS, and Windows for content authoring and game level development. With support for Multi-User Editing, artists, designers, and developers can simultaneously make changes to the same the project in a safe and reliable way, while the ability to run the full Unreal Editor in VR mode means you can build in a WYSIWYG environment.



Character animation tools
Completely customize characters and craft believable movement with Unreal Engine’s mesh and animation editing tools, which include powerful features such as state machines, blend spaces, forward and inverse kinematics, physics-driven animation for ragdoll effects, and the ability to preview animation on the fly. A scriptable rigging system offers ways to achieve procedural rigging, animating in engine, or setting up custom retargeting or full-body IK solutions.

Photoreal rasterizing and ray tracing in real time
Achieve Hollywood-quality visuals out of the box with Unreal Engine’s physically-based rasterizer and ray tracer. Selectively choose to ray trace reflections, shadows, translucency, ambient occlusion, image-based lighting, and global illumination, while continuing to rasterize others passes to get subtle, accurate effects at the performance you need. Effects include dynamic soft shadows from area lights, and ray-traced light from HDRI skylights.

Niagara particles and visual effects
Create film-quality levels of VFX polish in real time for effects such as fire, smoke, dust, and water with completely customizable particle systems in the built-in Niagara visual effects editor. Impact your scene with particle lights; create complex particle motion with vector fields; author effects such as flocking and chains with particle-to-particle communication; and use the audio waveform data interface to have particles react to music or other audio sources.

How to Install

Download the launcher
Before you can install and run Unreal Editor, you’ll need to download and install the Epic Games launcher.

Install Epic Games launcher
Once downloaded and installed, open the launcher and create or log in to your Epic Games account.

Install Unreal Engine
Once logged in, navigate to the Unreal Engine tab and click the Install button to download the most recent version.



System Requirements

Windows 10 64-bit, quad-core Intel or AMD, 2.5 GHz or faster, 8 GB RAM, DirectX 11 or 12 compatible graphics card

Alternatives

Unity: A popular game development engine known for its flexibility and strong 3D capabilities. It offers a comprehensive free version and a large community.

GameMaker: GameMaker Studio is the ultimate 2D game development software!

Construct 3: A user-friendly 2D game engine that also offers a drag-and-drop interface, ideal for beginners.

Godot: An open-source game engine that supports both 2D and 3D game development, known for its ease of use and active community.

RPG Maker: Tailored for creating role-playing games, this software provides specialized tools and a simple interface for RPG development.

PROS

High-Quality Graphics: Unreal Engine is renowned for its stunning, photorealistic graphics capabilities. It includes advanced rendering features like real-time ray tracing, high-quality shaders, and a robust lighting system, making it ideal for creating visually impressive games and applications.

Cross-Platform Support: Unreal Engine supports multiple platforms, including PC, consoles (PlayStation, Xbox), mobile devices, VR/AR headsets, and even web browsers. This allows developers to target a broad range of platforms with a single codebase.

Blueprint Visual Scripting: Unreal Engine offers a powerful visual scripting system called "Blueprints," which allows developers, including those without extensive coding experience, to create complex gameplay and interactions through a node-based interface.

Robust Asset Pipeline: Unreal Engine provides a robust system for importing, managing, and optimizing game assets, including 3D models, textures, animations, and audio files.

Large Community and Marketplace: Unreal Engine has a vibrant community of developers, artists, and content creators. It also has a marketplace where developers can find and purchase assets, plugins, and tools to accelerate their development process.

Frequent Updates: Epic Games actively maintains and updates Unreal Engine, providing regular improvements, bug fixes, and new features to developers.

Blueprint to C++ Transition: Unreal Engine allows developers to combine visual scripting (Blueprints) with C++ programming. This flexibility enables developers to use the best approach for their specific needs.

Extensive Documentation: Unreal Engine offers extensive documentation, tutorials, and educational resources, making it easier for developers to learn and use the engine effectively.

CONS

Learning Curve: Unreal Engine can be challenging for beginners due to its complexity. The visual scripting system (Blueprints) helps, but mastering the engine's full potential often requires a significant learning curve.

Resource Intensive: Unreal Engine's high-quality graphics and advanced features can be resource-intensive. Developers need powerful hardware to work comfortably, and players may require robust systems to run Unreal Engine games smoothly.

Royalty Fees: Unreal Engine has a royalty system in which developers pay royalties to Epic Games if their game exceeds a certain revenue threshold. While this may not be a significant concern for smaller developers, it's an important consideration for larger studios.

Integration Challenges: Integrating third-party plugins or tools into Unreal Engine can sometimes be complex, especially if those plugins are not officially supported.