Unreal Engine 5 is now available for download

As part of The State of Unreal 2022, Epic Games announced the release of a full version of Unreal Engine 5. Now anyone can download the engine.

Its key innovations, in addition to the interface that significantly reduces the entry threshold, are Lumen and Nanite technologies. The first, we recall, removes the need to bake light, and the second — virtualize any geometry without restrictions on detail.

Developers have received not only a new version of the engine, but also content that (a) introduces its capabilities and (b) allows developers to immediately take up prototyping and creating games.

First, we are talking about the City Sample, on the basis of which you can understand how the city was built from The Matrix Awakens: An Unreal Engine 5 Experience. This includes buildings, equipment, and virtual people.

The Matrix Awakens: An Unreal Engine 5 Experience

Secondly, the multiplayer shooter Lyra Starter Game was included in the engine. It is assumed that novice developers will create their own action titles based on it.

Lyra Starter Game

Thirdly, with the release of Unreal Engine 5, developers have been able to use Quixel Megascans directly from the editor. By the way, the library itself became available for free earlier, but now, thanks to Nanite, models don’t even need to be optimized for placing them in game scenes.

Quixel Megascans

It was also announced during the presentation that 48% of the games announced for the current generation of consoles are developed using Unreal technologies.