Epic Video games unveiled the State of Unreal in a keynote speech by CEO Tim Sweeney on the Unreal Fest in Orlando, Florida.
Epic Video games unveiled a surprising tech demo with CD Projekt Crimson, the maker of the Witcher sequence, because it confirmed off the tech behind The Witcher 4 on Unreal Engine 5.6. This put up will give a style of the occasion however our freelance author Giancarlo Valdes is on the bottom in Orlando. He’ll file dispatches with extra particulars and hands-on impressions. And yep, Epic is doing this reveal within the shadow of Disneyworld, because it skipped its conventional State of Unreal on the Recreation Builders Convention in March.
Epic additionally confirmed off AI creator instruments for its MetaHuman platform for creating human avatars with real looking faces in addition to Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN), which is the haven for user-generated content material. UEFN has generated $722 million in income paid out to third-party creators so far previously couple of years. And the Epic Video games Retailer has now paid developer and writer companions over $2.1 billion since launch.
The State of Unreal simply ended, and the viewers acquired a glimpse of the cutting-edge applied sciences that Epic Video games is testing and releasing to assist devs and creators construct superior experiences.
The present kicked off with a technical demo from CD Projekt Crimson — not The Witcher 4 itself, however a showcase of a number of the tech powering the brand new Witcher saga. Epic additionally revealed the most recent on Unreal Engine 5.6, together with main efficiency upgrades to empower groups to construct large-scale open worlds that, similar to this tech demo, run easily on current-gen {hardware}.
The Witcher 4 Unreal Engine 5 tech demo
When Epic launched Unreal Engine 5 three years in the past, CD Projekt Crimson stated it will collaborate with Epic to carry giant open-world assist to the engine. Collectively on the State of Unreal, now they revealed what they’ve been engaged on.
The Witcher 4 Unreal Engine 5 Tech Demo follows witcher Ciri, an expert monster slayer, as she explores the never-before-seen area of Kovir within the midst of a monster contract.
The tech demo supplies an early take a look at a variety of 5.6’s highly effective new open-world options in motion — all working on PlayStation 5 at 60 frames per second with raytracing — together with the brand new, sooner option to load open worlds through the Quick Geometry Streaming Plugin.
As Ciri explores the bustling market of Valdrest, Epic sees how 5.6 handles busy scenes filled with high-fidelity characters and visible results like ML Deformer. The tech demo additionally showcases Nanite Foliage — which supplies a quick and reminiscence environment friendly option to obtain beautiful foliage density and constancy, slated for launch in UE 5.7.
UE 5.6: open world magic and engine-first animation
Unreal Engine 5.6 is now out there for obtain! With this launch, one of many key targets was to empower devs to construct super-high-fidelity, large-scale open worlds that run easily at 60 frames per second on current-generation consoles, high-end PCs, and fashionable cell units.
Past open world options, Epic made main strides towards a really engine-first animation and rigging workflow, eliminating the necessity for DCC round-tripping. Epic additionally added the flexibility for devs to writer MetaHumans immediately throughout the engine, unlocking a extra streamlined and environment friendly artistic course of.
With MetaHuman 5.6, the digital human framework leaves Early Entry and is now absolutely embedded in Unreal Engine. Epic up to date the Unreal Engine EULA so MetaHuman characters and animation can be utilized in any engine, equivalent to Unity or Godot, in addition to artistic software program like Maya, Houdini, and Blender so you possibly can count on to see MetaHumans in additional locations.
MetaHuman Creator now has enhanced constancy due to improved supplies, a bigger scan database and improved fashions for processing scan information, plus new authoring workflows that can vastly increase the vary of obtainable choices for faces, our bodies, and clothes.
The replace additionally supplies the flexibility to generate real-time animation from virtually any digital camera or audio with MetaHuman Animator, and expands the MetaHuman ecosystem with new plugins for DCCs, in addition to integration with the Fab market.
Unreal Editor for Fortnite: New IP, AI-powered developer assistant
Since Epic launched UEFN simply over two years in the past, gamers have spent over 11.2 billion hours
throughout 260,000 reside creator-made islands, which has resulted in $722 million paid out to third-party
creators.
Epic proceed to increase the instruments and the IP which can be out there to creators, and beginning June 17 creators will have the ability to construct LEGO experiences brick-by-brick utilizing the LEGO Brick Editor.
Thrilling new IPs are additionally coming to UEFN with Squid Recreation slated for June 27, adopted by Avatar: The Final Airbender and Star Wars IP.
Talking of Star Wars, through the newest Season of Fortnite Battle Royale: Galactic Battle, Epic launched a Darth Vader NPC that makes use of conversational AI to reply when gamers converse to him. Epic is taking what it discovered and is sharing the underlying know-how with the creator group.
Later this yr, the corporate is releasing new instruments for creators to construct their very own partaking AI-powered NPCs in UEFN. As demonstrated onstage on the State of Unreal, creators will have the ability to use the brand new Persona Machine to create characters with personalities that gamers can speak to. And Epic is taking it a step additional so creators cannot solely drive NPC conduct and dialog, but in addition drive the core recreation itself.
One other AI device that can assist creators is the brand new Epic Developer Assistant, which is now out there in beta on the Epic Developer Group. Epic constructed this AI-powered assistant that will help you write Verse code that devs can use in UEFN initiatives. It additionally supplies solutions, workflow steering, snippets, and hastens the Fortnite island growth course of.
Lastly, the Scene Graph beta launches on June 7. Scene Graph is a brand new foundational layer for UEFN that unifies editor and runtime views, making all scene components accessible via Verse. Within the editor, it organizes entities hierarchically for quick, versatile world-building—turning repeated objects into prefabs for simpler administration. At runtime, Verse code can modify the scene dynamically, from transferring platforms to altering properties on lights. Scene Graph is engineered from the bottom as much as energy the way forward for UEFN.
Devs can discover all the brand new updates and enhancements coming to UEFN in a weblog put up. Throughout the Epic ecosystem RealityScan 2.0 is launching within the coming weeks, which can unify the desktop and cell variations underneath the ‘RealityScan’ identify. RealityScan 2.0 is full of new options like AI-powered masking, smarter picture alignment, and assist for airborne laser scans. CD Projekt Crimson used RealityScan to seize pure objects in excessive constancy for The Witcher 4 Unreal Engine 5 Tech Demo.
Epic additionally introduced that Fab will likely be out there within the Epic Video games launcher this summer time, making it simpler for builders to get Fab content material and combine it into their workflows. Loci joined Epic just lately and Epic will combine its AI applied sciences into Fab within the coming months to allow automated asset tagging, semantic search, and improved IP moderation.
Updates coming to the Epic Video games Retailer
The Epic Video games Retailer has now paid developer and writer companions over $2.1 billion since launch. On cell, EGS now has a library of 70 superior video games and 40 million installs so far, and it’s on monitor to hit 70 million by the tip of 2025. To present publishers a fair higher deal, Epic simply modified its preliminary income share to 0% for the primary $1 million then 12% thereafter.
Netmarble introduced that Mongil: Star Dive is coming completely to the Epic Video games Retailer on PC in October 2025 as a part of the Epic First Run program. The title will quickly be coming to cell as nicely, so hold an eye fixed out for it on the cell model of the Epic Video games Retailer.
Pre-loading is launching in September and gifting is coming in time for the vacations, so devs can present video games to mates on PC and cell. Epic can also be opening the Epic Video games Retailer’s self publishing to builders and publishers on Android and iOS in Q3 2025.
Epic Internet Retailers are coming in July, giving builders a simple option to arrange a store for PC and cell video games’ in-app purchases. Epic Internet Retailers will allow companions to learn from industry-leading income phrases, and cross on added worth to gamers with bonus gives and Epic Rewards.
And final however not least, Epic’s revamped social options will join its PC and cell gamers along with recreation unbiased voice chat, textual content chat, and events, together with strong recreation invitations for third-party video games. This would be the constructing block for a number of revolutionary social options on the Retailer that can observe.
