State of Unreal 2023: Epic presents innovations for Unreal Engine 5 and "Fortnite"
At the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Epic Games announced some news about Unreal Engine 5 and "Fortnite".
Epic brought out the big guns for its "State of Unreal 2023" keynote. In addition to an impressive tech demo for the Unreal Engine 5.2, the publisher also presented an update to the "Metahuman" technology and a new editor tool for "Fortnite". And the best thing is that you can try out many of the technologies presented today.
You can watch the keynote in full length here. Below I have summarised all the exciting announcements and news from the presentation.
Unreal Engine 5.2 with procedurally generated forest landscape
Epic's Unreal Engine 5 is getting a major update. The company has presented the new features of engine version 5.2 in an impressive demo.
The jungle landscape shown in the demo is bursting with detail. Dense foliage, bright sunshine and meadow landscapes look incredibly realistic.
A robot drives a shimmering truck through the bumpy terrain and the engine simulates even the smallest unevenness in the ground.
With the new tools in version 5.2, level designers should no longer have to painstakingly create elaborate details by hand. The levels are generated procedurally. New objects can be effortlessly integrated into the world - the engine ensures that everything fits together somehow in the background. This makes it easier and quicker to generate virtual worlds.
A first preview version of Unreal Engine 5.2 is available from today.
Animated metahumans - via iPhone
As a further tool, Epic Games has shown an impressive demo of a metahuman animation. The metahuman tool was first introduced in 2021 and is designed to simplify the creation of realistic human characters. Here, the company shows how realistic facial animations can be created with an iPhone video. The animation tool is set to be launched this summer.
The video below shows a character from "Hellblade II" animated with the Metahumans tool.
Unreal Editor for "Fortnite"
Epic Games also let us take a look at the new Unreal Editor for "Fortnite". With the latest tools, independent developers can create complex maps and their own content. With the editor, entire creator teams can work together across computers and consoles and test their developments in real time. The output does not necessarily have to look like "Fortnite". The demo shows various colourful characters in a rather gloomy environment.
The Unreal Editor for Fortnite is a new PC application for designing, developing and publishing games and experiences in Fortnite itself. Thanks to continuous improvements, most of the Unreal Engine 5 tools will also be available in the editor over time.
The beta version is now available in the Epic Games Store.
Creator Economy 2.0 - developers will be compensated
Independent developers have the opportunity to create content for "Fortnite". Epic Games has now announced an important change to how hobby developers can earn money with "Fortnite". With Creator Economy 2.0, monthly payouts will go to authorised island publishers, developers and Epic itself. The whole thing is paid from a pool consisting of income from the item shop and other real money purchases in "Fortnite". The pool is distributed to the developers on a monthly basis, depending on the popularity and interaction of their creations.
Codes are no longer required for this in this version. Previously, these codes had to be distributed by the developers to the players in order to get them onto a created map.
If you would like to find out more about Creators Economy 2.0 or even take part in it, you can register for it in the Creator Portal.
Source: Fortnite
FAB - a marketplace for everyone
Up to now, developers using Unreal Engine 5 have been able to discover, share, buy and sell digital content on various Epic Games marketplaces. All marketplaces are to be merged over the course of the year. Sketchfab, Quixel, the Unreal Engine marketplace and the Artstation marketplace will then all be available under the name FAB. You can test the marketplace a little earlier as an alpha plug-in for Fortnite's Unreal Editor.
Source: ArtcoreStudios
In my world, Super Mario chases Stormtroopers with a unicorn and Harley Quinn mixes cocktails for Eddie and Peter at the beach bar. Wherever I can live out my creativity, my fingers tingle. Or maybe it's because nothing flows through my veins but chocolate, glitter and coffee.