LogInAlong with new animation and character customization tools, upgraded Chaos Physics, and more.
During the opening session of the ongoing Unreal Fest Seattle 2024, Epic Games released the highly anticipated Preview version of Unreal Engine 5.5, allowing developers and digital artists to try out the upgraded engine before its official launch.
The undeniable highlight of UE5.5 is its brand-new lighting feature called MegaLights, which allows artists to use exponentially more lights in their 3D environments. Currently in an experimental phase, this feature enables the addition of countless movable and dynamic lighting sources, all of which generate realistic area shadows and can light volumetric fog.
To demonstrate this toolset in action, Epic showcased a breathtaking demo (52:00 in the presentation linked above) featuring a character exploring a game level illuminated by over a thousand shadow-casting lights in real-time on the PlayStation 5.
Besides MegaLights, Unreal Engine 5.5 Preview also makes Deformers easier to use and lets the user add them to Sequencer in one click, introduces much-requested features like TimeWarp curves and Animation Layers, brings a new Mutable plugin that makes it easier to support character variations, adds support for customizable vehicle models, upgrades the engine's Skeletal Editor and Chaos Physics, improves mobile and developer iteration tools, and enhances virtual production workflows.
You can try out UE5.5 Preview by downloading it via the Epic Games launcher or GitHub. Don't forget to join our 80 Level Talent platform and our Telegram channel, follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok, and Reddit, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.