Epic Games has just wrapped its State of Unreal 2023 keynote, where it showed off new enhancements coming to Unreal Engine 5.2, stunning new MetaHuman technology, a big push to unify its disparate assets marketplaces, and Fortnite’s long-awaited Unreal Editor tools. Given the popularity of Unreal Engine and Fortnite, the day’s announcements could have a major impact on the games we play in the future.
Here are the biggest announcements from the show.
Epic showed off a stunning, foliage-filled Unreal Engine 5.2 demo
One of Unreal Engine 5.2’s biggest additions is new procedural generation tools, which Epic showed off in a gorgeous “Electric Dreams” demo that took place in a dense, foliage-filled forest partially created with those tools. (It also stars a Rivian truck.) You can catch the demo early in Epic’s keynote, and the first preview of Unreal Engine 5.2 will be available today.
Image: Epic Games
Epic showed off a jaw-dropping demo of MetaHuman animation captured with just an iPhone. The tool is set to launch this summer.
Image: Epic Games
We finally got a look at Epic’s new Unreal Editor for Fortnite, which will give creators a bunch of new tools to create custom Fortnite maps and experiences. In a demo, the company showed off some bright Fortnite characters in a gritty, distinctly non-Fortnite-y world.
Read the story this image is from right here. Illustration: Jarett Sitter / The Verge
Epic announced a major change to the way creators can make money from Fortnite, promising that 40 percent of the game’s net revenues will be put back into a pool for creators. Interestingly, that pool includes Epic itself.
Image: Epic Games
Later this year, Unreal Engine Marketplace, Quixel Bridge, ArtStation Marketplace, and Sketchfab will all be merged into one marketplace, Fab. You can actually check out the marketplace a bit sooner than that, though, as an alpha plug-in for the Unreal Editor for Fortnite.
Source : The Verge