Epic Games has made a splash at Unreal Fest 2024 with the announcement of Unreal Engine 5.5, showcasing groundbreaking features that promise to revolutionize game development and visual fidelity.
The star of the show is the new experimental MegaLights technology, which enables developers to create incredibly realistic and dynamic lighting environments. During a live demonstration on PlayStation 5, Epic showcased a scene with over 1,000 shadow-casting lights, all rendered in real-time without noticeable performance drops.
MegaLights allows for movable, dynamic area shadows and the ability to light volumetric fog, creating soft, colored light that realistically interacts with surfaces. This technology has the potential to dramatically enhance the visual quality of games and other real-time 3D applications.
In addition to MegaLights, Unreal Engine 5.5 brings several other significant improvements:
- Nanite for Skeletal Meshes : Faster rendering of complex animated characters and objects.
- Production-Ready Path Tracer : Enhanced ray-tracing capabilities for ultra-realistic lighting and reflections.
- Rendering Improvements : Over 66 new or upgraded features, including spline meshes and pathfinding enhancements.
Epic Games is also making moves to attract more developers to its ecosystem. Starting January 1, 2025, the company will reduce the royalty rate for Unreal Engine games from 5% to 3.5% for earnings above $1 million, provided the games are published on the Epic Games Store simultaneously with or before other platforms.
Furthermore, Epic announced the Fab Publishing Portal, set to fully launch in mid-October. This unified marketplace will combine the Unreal Engine Marketplace, Sketchfab Store, ArtStation Marketplace, and Quixel.com, offering developers an 88/12 revenue split.
As the game development landscape continues to evolve, Epic's latest offerings demonstrate its commitment to pushing the boundaries of real-time graphics and creating a more developer-friendly ecosystem. With Unreal Engine 5.5, we can expect to see a new generation of visually stunning and immersive games in the near future.
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