See our full ‘Developer Day’ schedule for GDC 2021

UPDATE: GDC 2021 has now concluded, but you can now view our talks on YouTube.

GDC is always one of the highlights of our year. And while we might not be able to see you all in person yet (soon, we hope!), we still plan on bringing you some virtual talks you won’t want to miss. Unreal Engine 5, MetaHumans, the value of cross-play—we are going to get into all of it on July 20 with a few experts helping us put our new tech through its paces.

Here’s what we have lined up:

The Making of “Alpha Point”—UE5 Technical Demo

Presented by Kate Rayner, Studio Technical Director and Colin Penty, Technical Art Director at The Coalition

Catch the public debut of Alpha Point, a UE5 technical demo created by The Coalition to evaluate UE5 on the Xbox Series X/S. Hear what the team learned as they tested internal Nanite assets in Lumen-driven lighting scenarios, as well as their thoughts on how UE5’s performance and memory stacks up in Xbox Series X and S-style production environments. 

Watch the talk live at 1:20 PM - 2:20 PM PDT.

Rigging the MetaHumans

Presented by Riham Toulan, Senior Technical Animator on Epic Games’ MetaHumans team

With MetaHuman Creator, game devs can start creating high-fidelity digital humans in minutes, removing months from the production process. In this talk, we’ll offer a closer look at the MetaHuman rigs in Maya and Unreal Engine, including how you can customize and create variations to fit your project’s needs. 

Watch the talk live at 9:40 AM - 10:10 AM PDT.

Evolving Animating with Unreal Engine 

Presented by Jeremiah Grant, Technical Product Manager at Epic Games

In this talk, Jeremiah will demonstrate how to leverage the new workflows and rigging / animation authoring tools in Unreal Engine including Control Rig and Sequencer. By working in context, artists can stay close to their creations without having to bounce between software packages, making it easier to iterate quickly inside Unreal Engine. Find out how.

Watch the talk live at 3:30 PM - 4:00 PM PDT.

Everything You Need to Build a Modern Cross-Play Enabled Game

Presented by Simon Allaeys, Senior Director of Epic Online Services; Josh Markiewicz, Lead Programmer—Epic Online Services SDK; Don Eubanks, Fortnite Social UI Lead 

Social relationships not only influence engagement, but how we play. Join us to hear never-before-shared insights into gamers and their friendships, through the lens of Fortnite and Rocket League, as we break down why cross-play matters, what you need to build a cross-platform game, and how Epic Online Services can help studios usher in a cross-platform future.

Watch the talk live at 8:30 AM - 9:00 AM PDT.

Unreal Engine in 2021: MetaHumans, Quixel, and Beyond

Presented by Ari Arnbjörnsson, Unreal Engine Evangelist

What's beyond the engine? Find out as we explore the rest of the Epic Games ecosystem. Join Ari Arnbjörnsson for a guided tour of Epic Online Services, Quixel Megascans, MetaHuman Creator, and RAD Games tools, and see how they might apply to your own workflow.

Watch the talk live at 4:10 PM - 4:40 PM PDT.

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