LogInThe entire Quixel Megascans library became free for all Unreal Engine uses.
Epic Games has just announced the acquisition of Quixel at Unreal Academy London. All Quixel Megascans are now free for all users with Unreal Engine. Quixel’s primary operations are said to remain based in Sweden, and over 100 employees across six countries have joined the Epic Games team.
“Building photorealistic 3D content is an expensive endeavor in game development and film production. By coming together with Quixel to make Megascans free for all users in Unreal Engine, this level of artistry is now available to everyone from triple-A studios to indies,” noted Epic Games Founder and CEO Tim Sweeney.
“Our mission at Quixel has always been to make the world more accessible for everyone through ultra-high-resolution scanning. As part of Epic Games, we’re now able to accelerate this vision as we grow the Megascans library, speed up the development of Bridge and Mixer, and improve integrations with all major 3D software and renderers,” states Quixel Co-founder Teddy Bergsman.
Ten high-resolution packs have become free on the Unreal Engine Marketplace. Also, you can get a collection of assets from the popular Iceland collection used for the development of the “Rebirth” cinematic short. Additional asset packs will become free on the Marketplace within the Unreal Engine 4.24 release timeframe.
What is more, Quixel Mixer and Quixel Bridge are being made free to all, regardless of engine choice or license type. All Quixel Megascans users can expect more downloads per month and more generous license terms.
Epic Games has also announced that starting with Unreal Engine 4.24, Datasmith suite of plugins, static mesh editing, and the Variant Manager will ship as part of the unified binary tool. As a result, the Unreal Studio beta will be retired upon the release of Unreal Engine 4.24.
Available now in Preview 1, Unreal Engine 4.24 has a bunch of upgrades and new features:
- New nondestructive, layer-based Landscape workflows enable more interesting and engaging outdoor environments where the terrain automatically adapts to other elements in the world.
- The Sky Atmosphere component generates a physically-accurate sky that can be updated dynamically depending on the time of day, and it can be viewed from the ground or from the air to create realistic-looking planetscapes.
- The new experimental strand-based hair and fur system brings characters to life with realistic, flowing hair.
- Screen-space global illumination allows for natural light-filled spaces using fewer resources.
- The Live Universal Scene Description (USD) Stage Actor creates a direct link to the USD file on disk for faster iteration and better collaboration.
- Project creation workflow now includes a wizard-style workflow centered around the industry or type of project you are creating so you only see relevant settings and tools.
As for Twinmotion, Epic decided to extend the free availability until the next release of Twinmotion (expected to ship in the first quarter of 2020). The update will bring greater photorealism, improved assets, tools to facilitate collaborative workflows, and more.
Learn more here.