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Unreal Engine

Welcome to our next-gen hub

Hear from Epic and other industry experts about the tools that are enabling teams of all sizes to create the next generation of games.

01

Spotlights

Next-gen now

 
With support for Sony PlayStation 5 and Microsoft Xbox Series X, Unreal Engine is ready for next-gen games. Forward compatibility ensures that even if you start in UE4, you can move everything over to UE5 when you are ready.

Unreal Engine 5 is now available in Early Access, supporting next/current-generation consoles, PC, Mac, iOS, and Android.

The Matrix Awakens: An Unreal Engine 5 Experience 

Ready to explore where interactive storytelling and entertainment goes next? Download the new UE5 tech demo today and take a wild ride into the reality-bending universe of The Matrix! 

Unreal Engine 5 Early Access

Ready to get your hands on Lumen, Nanite, MetaSounds, and more? Unreal Engine 5 is now available in Early Access for you to start testing the new features and prototyping your next games.

Early Access to MetaHuman Creator is now available

Deciphering the narrative-driven procedural horror of Returnal

Presentations on AI, Water, Landmass, Niagara, and Hair and Fur released

UE5 feature highlights

Learn how to code with Unreal Engine

Next-gen gaming: tech's take on gaming's future

The Pulse EP4: The Next-Gen Gaming Revolution

The magic of creating Kena: Bridge of Spirits

11-person studio Neon Giant delivering next-gen passion project The Ascent

An overview of real-time ray tracing in Unreal Engine

Unreal Engine developers shine at PlayStation 5 showcase

Exploring the depths of the new Sky Atmosphere system

Choosing a performance capture system for real-time mocap

An early look at next-generation real-time hair and fur

02

Key Features

For creators, by creators

Nanite (UE5)

Nanite virtualized micropolygon geometry frees artists to create as much geometric detail as the eye can see.

Lumen (UE5)

Lumen is a fully dynamic global Illumination solution that immediately reacts to scene and light changes, allowing for more interactive and dynamic virtual worlds.

World building

Build realistic environments with non-destructive landscape creation and editing tools and an accurate atmospheric sky model.

Niagara VFX

Niagara is a node-based programmable VFX system that helps artists to create everything from particle effects to fluid simulations and flocking behaviors. Want to generate the same type of effects used in Fortnite or create more compelling cinematics? Niagara has you covered.

Chaos physics

Chaos is Unreal Engine’s next-generation high-performance physics system. Using Chaos’s Destruction feature, you can fracture, shatter, and demolish massive-scale scenes at cinematic quality with unprecedented levels of artistic control. Chaos also supports static mesh dynamics, cloth, hair, vehicles, and rigid-body animation, and is integrated with Niagara for secondary effects such as dust and smoke.

Next-gen platform support

We’ve added first-class support for Sony PlayStation 5 and Microsoft Xbox Series X consoles, with the aim of delivering full feature parity with previous-generation consoles.

Industry-leading graphics

Achieve awe-inspiring visual content out of the box with Unreal Engine’s physically based rasterized and ray-traced rendering. Take advantage of advanced dynamic shadow options, screenspace and true 3D reflections, versatile lighting tools, and a flexible node-based material editor to create the most realistic real-time content imaginable. 

Robust multiplayer framework

For over two decades, Unreal Engine’s multiplayer framework has been battle-tested across many platforms and game types to produce some of the industry’s most engaging multiplayer experiences. Unreal Engine ships with a scalable and proven client/server architecture to bring instant viability to any project’s multiplayer component.

Full access to C++ source code

With free access to all C++ source code, you can study, customize, extend, and debug the entirety of Unreal Engine, and ship your project without obstruction. Our source code repository on GitHub is continually updated as we develop features in our mainline, so you don’t have to wait for the next product release to get your hands on the very latest code.

Blueprints: create without coding

With artist-friendly Blueprint visual scripting, you can rapidly prototype and ship interactive content without touching a line of code. Use Blueprints to build object behaviors and interactions, modify user interfaces, adjust input controls, and so much more. You can even visualize gameplay flow and inspect properties while testing your work using the powerful built-in debugger.

Quixel Megascans

Enjoy access to Quixel’s entire Megascans library for free. Tap into thousands of 3D/2D PBR assets, built on high-res scans taken from environments all over the globe. With optimized topology, UVs, and LODs, and consistent scale and resolution, it’s never been easier to make a world come alive.

Profiling and performance

Unreal Engine includes tools that will help you identify and remove the bottlenecks that slow your project down. For instance, use the Unreal Insights system when you want a good read on engine performance. It collects and visualizes UE behavior data in an intuitive way.