Unreal Engine 5

Unreal 5 is one of the most popular game engines. While teams love UE4, the release of Unreal Engine 5 (UE5) includes some much-anticipated improvements (plus some stunning new features).

What Is Unreal Engine 5?

Unreal Engine 5 is the newest version of Unreal Engine. Early access for Unreal Engine 5 was announced in May 2021, with the full release of UE5 now available.

Why Unreal Engine 5?

Unreal Engine is becoming a staple of game and virtual production development (including technology for other industries like digital twins). With UE5, teams are empowered to build big. Across industries, creators will be able to collaborate in real-time to deliver outstanding visuals and experiences for end users. Let's dive into the features.

Nanite

Unreal Engine 5 goes granular. Nanite is a virtualized geometry system that saves you time when designing massive amounts of detail. It eliminates tedious tasks for loading in level of details (LODs) and allows you to import film-quality art. Now you can scan and go. And don’t worry, this does not impact performance. You still get a real-time frame rate.

Lumen

Creating a realistic scene comes down to the lighting. Lumen allows you to make changes quickly by adjusting the lighting to match the time of day, a new light source (like a flashlight), a sudden beam entering the shot, and more. It adjusts lighting from open, dynamic scenes down to the tiniest details.

Expansive Worlds

UE4 is already known for allowing you to create open worlds. But Unreal Engine 5 takes it to the next level. It accelerates creation and makes it easier to collaborate.

The World Partition system uses a grid to map sub-levels of an entire universe. You can manage complex levels that load and unload as a player goes across the landscape. Also, the One File Per Actor system helps teams work in parallel. It reduces overlap by saving data as external files per contributor. To use this feature, you will need a high-performance version control system.

Animations

Innovation requires iteration. Unreal Engine 5 expands their animation toolset with tools like Control Ride. Now you can create and share rigs across characters. To create more natural movements, you can save and apply poses with Full-Body IK solver.

MetaSounds

If you haven’t tried Unreal Engine 5 yet, this is the reason to start. MetaSounds gives you all the control plus increased flexibility for managing audio. It delivers workflow improvements to help you manage every aspect of a sound experience.

There is of course more out there — enhanced editors and updated workflows to name a few. But before you dive into the release, discover what you need in your toolset to get the most out of UE5.