Architecture

Blur the line between real and unreal.

Go beyond how a design will look. Show people how it’ll feel. With Unreal Engine, you can create immersive designs that feel stunningly real—and explore them in lifelike detail before you ever break ground.

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The latest news for architecture

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January 20, 2026

Unreal Fest Chicago 2026

Tickets for Unreal Fest Chicago are now available! Get yours today and join fellow devs in the Windy City, June 16–18, as we celebrate the Epic community, showcase innovative projects, and dive into new features and technology.

News

November 12, 2025

Unreal Engine 5.7 is now available

The latest release empowers you to build and render expansive, lifelike worlds filled with rich, beautiful details in real time. Plus, we’re bringing even more workflows right to the Unreal Editor, not to mention a little help from our AI Assistant. Check out the details.

News

Features for architecture

With Unreal Engine, you can take your data from raw CAD, BIM, or DCC files to stunning immersive real-time experiences and offline-rendered-quality linear media in less time than you thought possible. Then, iterate to your heart’s content, react to feedback, and see your changes update in the blink of an eye.

See all features

Aggregation, iteration, collaboration

Import entire scenes—including animation and metadata—from multiple popular CAD and BIM packages and update them on the fly with Datasmith Direct Link. Automate your data cleanup and optimization tasks with Dataprep tools. Make modeling and UV tweaks directly in UE5 if you don’t have access to the source package. And participate in collaborative design reviews with a template specifically designed for architecture.

Datasmith

Dataprep

Modeling tools

Collab Viewer Templates

Photorealistic real-time rendering

Easily create and edit physically based materials with the flexible node-based Material Editor. Get true-to-life reflections, refractions, and soft shadows with ray tracing and path tracing. Turn on dynamic global illumination that reacts to changes in direct lighting or geometry on the fly. And create convincing exterior scenes with the atmospheric Sun and Sky system.

Material Editor

Ray tracing and path tracing

Lumen dynamic global illumination

Sun and Sky

One asset, every deliverable

From a single UE5 project, you can showcase your work any way you want: gorgeous high-res stills and videos with Movie Render Queue; compelling immersive experiences with support for extended reality deployment; and even cloud-based delivery to anyone, anywhere with an internet connection and a web browser with Pixel Streaming.

Movie Render Queue

VR, AR & MR

Pixel Streaming

Architecture success stories

Recreating the original vision for
Habitat 67

Explore how one of the most important buildings of the 20th century was recreated virtually using UE5 and RealityCapture.

Safdie Architects | Neoscape

Accelerating urban master planning with Unreal Engine

Discover how Unreal Engine’s real-time technology is helping real estate developers to create immersive plans that enable stakeholders to make faster decisions.

BetaPort System © Urban Beta

Zaha Hadid Architects gives fans what they want with real-time stadium design

Learn how real-time visualization influenced the design of the Xi’an International Football Center, coming to Chinese soccer fans in 2023.

Zaha Hadid Architects

CAD Center creates Tokyo-sized digital twins with Twinmotion and Unreal Engine

Take a look at how CAD Center is developing interactive content and simulators for urban digital twins and smart cities in Japan.

CAD CENTER CORPORATION

Let’s get started.

Ready to build something? Check out our recommended tutorials, samples, and documentation pages to help you get going.

Tutorials

Go to library

Lighting Essential Concepts and Effects

Course · 8 years ago

This course explains the basics of setting up lighting in Unreal Engine. Learn about the different types of lights, how to use them together, and how to add special effects like fog and reflections.

Hillside Sample

Sample Project · 3 years ago

The Hillside Sample Project is an archviz scene made by Epic Games, Safdie Architects, and Neoscape.

Introduction to Procedural Generation plugin in UE5.2

Tutorial · 3 years ago

This tutorial is a series of videos aimed at kickstarting your journey with the Procedural Content Generation plugin, introduced as Experimental in 5.2.

Documentation

Know what you want to do, but not how? Dig into our wide range of documentation to find your footing!

Datasmith

Artist Quick Start

Rendering High Quality Frames

Lumen Global Illumination and Reflections

Mixed Reality Capture

Go to Documentation

Licensing

We’ve streamlined our license terms to make your choices clearer. Need something designed just for you? Work with us to create a custom license. Visit our FAQ or reach out to the community if you have any questions.

Under $1 million USD in revenue?

Free

Game developers (royalties apply after $1 million USD gross product revenue)
Individuals and small businesses (with less than $1 million USD in annual gross revenue)
For educators and schools (no revenue limits)

Access to the source code
All platforms & features
Forums and documentation on the Epic Developer Community

Download now View FAQ Licensing Terms

Over $1 million USD in revenue?

Royalty-based

If you're creating a game or application that relies on engine code at runtime and will be licensed to third party end users, you'll pay royalties and won't be required to purchase seats.

Seat-based

If you're using Unreal Engine for commercial purposes, have generated more than $1 million in the past 12 months, and are not creating a game or application that relies on engine code at runtime and will be licensed to third party end users, then a seat license fee is required.

Unreal Engine is just the beginning.

Discover our collection of creative tools, content, services, and resources designed to help you turn ideas into reality.

Twinmotion

Transform BIM and CAD data into stunning visualizations and VR experiences with a few clicks—no training required.

Take a look

MetaHuman

Customize and animate highly realistic digital human characters for use in your scenes.

Dive in

RealityScan

Produce high-fidelity 3D models from laser scans and photos that you can use in your real-time scenes.

Find out more

Unreal Editor for Fortnite

Digitally recreate spaces in UEFN that extend incredible architectural experiences into the world of Fortnite where millions can engage with them.

Check it out

The Fab marketplace

Access a huge library of free and purchasable digital assets—3D models, materials, sound, VFX, digital humans, and more.

Browse now

Sample projects

Explore Unreal Engine’s archviz tools with hands-on sample projects that demonstrate features, settings, and more.

Let's get started

Quixel Megascans

Browse the world’s largest library of AAA, cinema-quality assets based on real-world scan data, ready for use in your projects.

Explore now

Hillside sample project

Explore the interiors, exteriors, and 3D surroundings of a photorealistic experience based on Moshe Safdie’s Habitat 67.

Download now

Looking to use the Unreal Engine logo in your project? Access our brand guidelines and logos here.

Need help?

Connect with creators across industries and around the globe. Share everything from shortcuts to snippets to secret shader tricks. When you use Unreal Engine, you’re never alone—our community of hundreds of thousands of developers is here to support you as you bring your idea to life.

Dev Community Forums

Ask and answer questions; show off your work and get inspiration from others.

Unreal Source

Come hang out with us and our developer community on Discord.