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Unreal Engine

Make something Unreal

Unreal Engine is a complete suite of development tools for anyone working with real-time technology. It gives creators across industries the freedom and control to deliver cutting-edge entertainment, compelling visualizations, and immersive virtual worlds.

01Overview
02Features
03Licensing
04Resources
01

Overview

The world’s most open and advanced real-time 3D creation tool

Image courtesy of Dekogon Studios

The help you need to succeed

We’re here to guide you. Fuel your success with comprehensive reference documentation, instructional guides, community-based support, and options for dedicated professional support.

Explore by industry

Games

Architecture

Automotive & transportation

Broadcast & live events

Film & television

Simulation

More uses

The Apartment courtesy of Secondary Bounce

Uncompromised quality, proven results

Unreal Engine is a state-of-the-art engine and editor with photorealistic rendering, dynamic physics and effects, lifelike animation, robust data translation, and much more—on an open, extensible platform that won’t tie you down.
Image courtesy of Render Cube

Your path to a bright career

Demand for real-time 3D skills are at an all-time high and learning Unreal Engine opens up your career potential. With over 160 hours of free self-paced online tutorials, instructor-led training, and regular global events, there’s a range of options to suit your learning style.
02

Features

Everything you need to start, ship, grow, and stand out from the crowd

Pipeline integration

With seamless data conversion and automatable dataprep, Unreal Engine is the perfect fit for your pipeline.
  • Datasmith toolset for full scene conversion
  • Python scripting
  • Visual Dataprep tool for optimization

Animation

With built-in tools for advanced rigging, character animation, performance capture streaming, and more, you can animate in context.
  • Control Rig and full-body IK
  • Sequencer nonlinear editor
  • Live Link data streaming

Simulation and effects

Create believable human and animal characters, massive-scale reactive environments, and film-quality levels of VFX polish.
  • Strand-based hair and fur
  • Chaos physics and destruction
  • Niagara particles and FX

Integrated media support

It takes more than 3D assets to make your project sing. Unreal Engine supports all your video and audio needs too. 
  • Professional video I/O support
  • Unreal Audio Engine
  • Media Framework

Content

Why build everything from scratch when you can get a head start for free? Unreal Engine offers easy access to rich content.
  • Quixel Megascans
  • Sample projects
  • Marketplace ecosystem

World building

Get tools you need to quickly create, edit, and manage the real-time environment of your dreams.
  • Landscape and terrain tools
  • Sky, cloud, and environment lighting
  • Water system

Gameplay and interactivity authoring

Make engrossing games and compelling experiences that react to your players and viewers in ways they’ll find hard to believe.
  • Blueprint visual scripting system
  • Advanced artificial intelligence
  • Variant Manager

Rendering, lighting, and materials

Achieve Hollywood-quality visuals right out of the box with unprecedented speed and control.
  • Real-time ray tracing and rasterizing
  • Flexible material editor
  • Sophisticated lighting

Virtual production

Unreal Engine’s comprehensive virtual production toolset covers everything from previs to final-pixel in-camera VFX.
  • nDisplay multi-display rendering
  • Virtual Scouting
  • Virtual Camera plugin

Developer tools

Not all projects are created equal. Customize Unreal Engine and extend its functionality to meet your unique needs.
  • Full source code access
  • Robust C++ API
  • Seamless Perforce integration

What's new

We regularly release new versions of Unreal Engine that include new and improved features, community contributions, and bug fixes. We also share live changes to source code through GitHub.

Every platform you need

With a single unified content pipeline, you can publish your content across all major platforms, from mobile to console and PC, and XR (AR, VR, and MR) too! You can even use Pixel Streaming to deliver your interactive content to any web browser on any device.

Plugins

Connect with your world

No matter where you model your assets, bringing them into Unreal Engine is fast and efficient, thanks to systems like Datasmith, a toolset for seamlessly converting entire scenes from a wide range of industry-standard design applications. While many formats are supported natively, others require exporter plugins to be installed in the source application; you can find these here.
03

Licensing Options

Full feature access from day one

Creators license

Free to use

For creators working on internal and free projects, custom applications, and linear content. Typically used by professionals in industries outside of games, such as architecture, automotive, and film & TV. Also suitable for students, educators, and personal learning.

Publishing license

Free to use

5% royalty when your product succeeds*
For game developers and other creators planning to monetize off-the-shelf interactive products. Also suitable for learning or personal projects if there is a possibility that you will move towards monetized game development in the future.

*The first $1 million USD of lifetime gross revenue your product makes is royalty-exempt.

Other options

Talk to us

For companies that would benefit from a closer relationship with Epic Games, along with the potential for custom terms, premium support, private training, and more, we offer the flexibility of licensing agreements tailored to your specific needs, or the Unreal Enterprise Program as a packaged bundle.

Every feature included

Get unreal engine

Download now

Unreal Engine comes fully loaded and production-ready out of the box, with every feature and full source code access included—for free.

Talk to us

Custom licensing

Looking for premium support, custom terms, or a direct relationship with Epic Games? Talk to us about an Enterprise license or custom solution.
04

Resources

Learn how to use Unreal Engine

Whether you’re just getting started and need some basic guidance, or you’re a seasoned pro who’s pushing Unreal Engine to its limits, there’s a range of options to help you succeed.

Online learning

Course

Your first hour with Unreal Engine

1 hour 3 minutes

In this course, Paul Kind will walk you through your first hour using Unreal Engine and teach you how to build your first interactive experience. We'll work our way through the basics of the user interface and the essential features of the engine, and by the end of this course, you will be able to create your own projects with more confidence.

Course

Blueprints - Essential Concepts

1 hour 13 minutes

This video introduces the fundamentals of the Blueprint visual scripting system. Learn what Blueprints are, how to create and work with them, and about some of the different types available.

Frequently asked questions

General information

You can view our recommended and minimum hardware and software specifications for Windows, macOS, and Linux here.
Unreal Engine enables you to deploy projects to Windows PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Google Stadia, macOS, iOS, Android, AR, VR, Linux, SteamOS, and HTML5. You can run the Unreal Editor on Windows, macOS, and Linux.

PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and Google Stadia console tools and code are available at no additional cost to developers who are registered developers for their respective platform(s).
Unreal Engine is free to use. We offer a choice of licensing terms depending on your use of Unreal Engine.
  • Unreal Engine End User License Agreement for Publishing: This license is free to use; a 5% royalty is due only when you monetize your game or other interactive off-the-shelf product and your gross revenues from that product exceed $1,000,000 USD. In other words, the first $50k of royalties that you would have otherwise owed are on us! You can find out more about royalties in the Releasing products section of this FAQ.
  • Unreal Engine End User License Agreement for Creators: This license is free to use and 100% royalty-free; you can use it to create internal or free projects, or to develop linear content or custom projects for clients, but not for publishing off-the-shelf interactive offerings.
  • There are also options for custom licenses and for packaged support offerings. Contact us to find out more.
Yes. Access to full C++ source code for Unreal Engine is included from the moment you create an account and install the engine. You can download source code from GitHub, and you will continue to receive regular updates, including access to live source code changes. Even if you don’t plan to modify the source, it’s super-useful to have it available to understand and debug interactions between your C++ code and the engine’s C++ code!
The Marketplace is the e-commerce platform through which content creators using Unreal Engine connect with developers by providing a wealth of game-ready content and code. Check out the Marketplace FAQ and Marketplace Guidelines for more information on obtaining and distributing products through the Unreal Engine Marketplace.

Other products from Epic Games

Twinmotion

Create high-quality renderings and 360° VR videos in seconds

Twinmotion is a real-time 3D immersion software that combines an intuitive, icon-driven interface with the power of Unreal Engine to make high-end visualization accessible to architects and designers.

Bridge by Quixel

Your gateway to Megascans and a world of 3D content

Quixel Bridge gives you unlimited access to the entire Megascans library. Create photorealistic or highly stylized worlds of your own with instant drag and drop of fully optimized, real-time-ready assets.

MetaHuman Creator

High-fidelity digital humans in minutes

MetaHuman Creator is a cloud-streamed app that takes real-time digital human creation from months to minutes—with no compromise on quality. MetaHumans come fully rigged and ready to animate in Unreal Engine. 

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