Unreal Engine 4.13 Now Available

Unreal Engine 4.13 has released and brings hundreds of updates for Unreal Engine 4, including 145 improvements submitted by the UE4 developer community on GitHub!

The release includes several new rendering features, Alembic support for importing vertex animations, dynamic shadow optimization for mobile and improvements to the VR Editor! The Sequencer cinematic editor has also received major upgrades, including enhanced live recording and the ability to transfer shots and animations back and forth from external applications. The new features included with Sequencer can be seen in the SIGGRAPH Real-Time Live! 2016 demonstration. Plus a new VR Template makes it easy to create new VR projects with UE4.

Learn more about Unreal Engine 4.13 here.

WHAT’S NEW

Many new rendering features have been added, such as mesh decals, Blueprint drawing to render targets, GPU morph targets, refraction improvements and high quality, optimized noise functions are now available to materials. Shadow map caching allows for more shadow-casting dynamic lights in a scene than ever before!

Sequencer, a new non-linear cinematic editor, has been updated with a slew of new features for high-end cinematography. Live recording from gameplay has been significantly improved. Also, you can now transfer shots and animations back and forth from external applications. 

Alembic support allows you to import complex and interesting vertex animations. And the newPhysical Animation Component lets your characters respond realistically to physical forces by driving their skeletal animation through motors.

For mobile developers, dynamic shadows have been optimized, full-precision materials are supported, and custom post-processing is now possible. OpenGL ES 3.1 can now be used on Android, and binary shader caching will improve your iteration times.

VR games can now use capsule shadows, and stereo instancing has been optimized. Oh, and check out the new VR Template Project! It’s a great example of how to use motion controllers to interact and navigate in your VR game.

Want to build your levels while in VR? Unreal’s VR Editor has been improved with support for mesh and foliage painting, a new transform gizmo, and VR color picking. Finally, you now can instantly play your game right from VR! You can turn on “Enable VR Editing” in the Experimental section of your Editor Preferences.

Epic Games

VR FUNHOUSE MOD EDITOR NOW AVAILABLE

NVIDIA and Epic have announced the release of the VR Funhouse Mod Kit for NVIDIA’s UE4-powered title, VR Funhouse. Available now through the Modding tab on the Epic Games launcher, the VR Funhouse Mod Kit gives fans the ability to alter the game through a variety of accessible and free modding tools. In addition, developers can find the VR Funhouse source code available now on GitHub!

Players can find community-built mods through the VR Funhouse Steam Workshop page and additional details of the VR mod editor can be found here.

TODAY ON TWITCH: AN EXCLUSIVE LOOK AT VR FUNHOUSE AND THE WINNERS OF THE AUGUST UE4JAM

Today on the weekly livestream, Executive Producer for VR Funhouse Dan Johnson will be dialing in and joining Epic’s Chance Ivey and Alexander Paschall for a chat and demonstration of the VR Funhouse Mod Kit. In addition, European Community Manager Jess Hider will be joining Alexander to announce and demonstrate the winning games of the August #UE4jam!

Be sure to tune into the Twitch stream, which kicks off today at 11am PDT / 2pm EDT / 7pm BST on  Twitch. Questions can be submitted here.

In addition, if you missed this week’s training stream on Physical Animation Components with Senior Training Content Creator Ian Shadden, you can watch it here.