Epic Games has released version 5.5 of the Unreal Engine. The update of the popular game engine offers a number of innovations in various areas such as animation, virtual production and game development for mobile devices.
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Animation and Sequencer
Sequencer, a non-linear animation editor, has received a user interface overhaul and so-called non-destructive animation layers in Unreal Engine 5.5. The latter allows changes to be made to the animation without overwriting the original data. This lets animators make adjustments such as additive or overriding transformations and layer weights without affecting the underlying animation. The following image shows an excerpt from a short video to illustrate The announcement can be found in the post,
Unreal Engine 5.5 introduces non-destructive animation layers for greater control and flexibility when editing animations.
(Picture: epic games,
An Animator Kit offers pre-built control rigs – tools that allow you to create and customize animations of 3D characters directly in the editor by manipulating skeletal structures and control objects. The modular control rig is now in beta and offers support for different skeleton types.
MetaHuman Animator is optimized to create high quality facial animations from audio-only performances. Additionally, the mutable system enables dynamic character adjustments at runtime, which, according to the announcement post, is especially relevant for developers who need flexible content.
rendering and lumens
In terms of rendering, version 5.5 of Unreal Engine brings significant modifications, including an optimized lumens technology that now runs at 60Hz on hardware-supported platforms, as well as production-ready path tracers, which materialize with new performance. Provides accurate renders. ,
The Substrate content creation framework has gone into beta, enabling detailed control over object design across all platforms. Movie Render Graph has also reached beta status, bringing improvements to the rendering configuration workflow. The engine also introduces MegaLights, an experimental feature that allows the use of multiple dynamic lights in scenes, allowing for more creative lighting designs without performance limitations.
virtual production
The ICVFX (In-Camera Visual Effects) toolset reaches production readiness and provides comprehensive support for SMPTE 2110, a standard for transmitting uncompressed video and audio data over IP networks in real time. The update also brings revised camera calibration and virtual scouting. These innovations are intended to make it easier to implement complex visual effects for film and television.
Developer iterations and platform support
Unreal Engine 5.5 improves the efficiency of developer workflows with production-ready Unreal Zen servers and optimized asset loading processes. Mobile support has also been increased to encourage AAA mobile game development.
provides more information announcement post For Unreal Engine 5.5.
(MDO)
