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Epic Games has just wrapped its State of Unreal 2023 keynote, where it showed off new enhancements coming to Unreal Engine 5.2, stunning new MetaHuman technology, a big push to unify its disparate assets marketplaces, and Fortnite’s long-awaited Unreal Editor tools. Given the popularity of Unreal Engine and Fortnite, the day’s announcements could have a major impact on the games we play in the future.
Here are the biggest announcements from the show.
Epic showed off a stunning, foliage-filled Unreal Engine 5.2 demo
One of Unreal Engine 5.2’s biggest additions is new procedural generation tools, which Epic showed off in a gorgeous “Electric Dreams” demo that took place in a dense, foliage-filled forest partially created with those tools. (It also stars a Rivian truck.) You can catch the demo early in Epic’s keynote, and the first preview of Unreal Engine 5.2 will be available today.
Epic showed off a jaw-dropping demo of MetaHuman animation captured with just an iPhone. The tool is set to launch this summer.
We finally got a look at Epic’s new Unreal Editor for Fortnite, which will give creators a bunch of new tools to create custom Fortnite maps and experiences. In a demo, the company showed off some bright Fortnite characters in a gritty, distinctly non-Fortnite-y world.
Epic announced a major change to the way creators can make money from Fortnite, promising that 40 percent of the game’s net revenues will be put back into a pool for creators. Interestingly, that pool includes Epic itself.
Later this year, Unreal Engine Marketplace, Quixel Bridge, ArtStation Marketplace, and Sketchfab will all be merged into one marketplace, Fab. You can actually check out the marketplace a bit sooner than that, though, as an alpha plug-in for the Unreal Editor for Fortnite.