How Unreal Engine 5.2 Changes Game Development

Epic Games revealed Unreal Engine 5.2 features and tools at GDC 2023, such as PCG, Substrate, MetaHumans, and more!

Two weeks ago, Epic Games had their big presentation at GDC 2023 called "State of Unreal." I didn't even know GDC 2023 was going on! I was so excited to see some cool things shown in their presentation. There was a lot of stuff presented in their showcase, but I will focus on the announcement and showcase of Unreal Engine 5.2 for this article.

Since Unreal Engine 5 was released on April 5th, 2022, they have been working tirelessly on updating it and adding new and beneficial features for game developers. What has been shown will change how games are created with improved workflow and technologies.

One of the most impressive features of Unreal Engine 5.2 is Substrate, a new method for handling materials that enable artists to author materials at a level of quality and fidelity that wasn't possible before in real-time!

Substrate allows you to create stunning effects like opal metallic paint, iridescent surfaces, and dirt and mud layers more efficiently and flexibly. You can see Substrate in action when you watch the Electric Dreams Demo Epic Games showcased, where they rendered a Rivian electric truck with over 71 million polygons using Nanite.

Unreal Engine 5.2 has another great feature: the PCG (Procedural Content Generation), which creates realistic worlds with plants, rocks, buildings, roads, and more. You can use your own or ready-made assets from the Quixel Megascans library and set some rules to fill large areas quickly and easily. It enables you to define rules and parameters, making the process of large-world creation fast and efficient. PCG also works well with Lumen, the dynamic global illumination system that reacts in real-time as you move light sources around in your scene.

Epic Games has also announced Fab, a new 3D marketplace that will unify platforms like Unreal Engine Marketplace, Sketchfab, Quixel Bridge, and the ArtStation Marketplace. Fab will allow creators to buy and sell assets such as 3D models, materials, sound, VFX, digital humans, and more, with an 88% revenue share. With Fab, you can open the marketplace while creating in Unreal Engine 5.2 and drag and drop things you would like to add. You could even see previews of them before adding and even get automatic tagging if you created something.

Those features are crucial to the workflow, and I am glad they integrated that. Other apps like Adobe Substance 3D Painter have collaborations with Unreal Engine to make exporting and importing easy. Fab will also work with Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN), a new tool that lets players create content for Fortnite using Unreal Editor's development workflows and proven PC-based toolset.

One of the most impressive showcases at Epic Games' State of Unreal 2023 keynote was the new MetaHuman Animator technology, which allows users to create realistic digital humans in minutes using facial capture from an iPhone. MetaHuman Animator is part of the MetaHuman framework launched last year, which offers a library of high-quality human models that can be customized and animated in Unreal Engine. With MetaHuman Animator, people can simply record a video of themselves or someone else using an iPhone and then transfer their facial expressions and emotions onto a MetaHuman character with surprising accuracy and detail. The tool can also generate animations from audio files or use existing animations from other sources.

Epic demonstrated the power and simplicity of MetaHuman Animator by capturing a live performance by Melina Juergens, the actress who plays Senua in Ninja Theory's Hellblade franchise and recreating it on a MetaHuman character in real-time. That was engaging to watch, as she does a great job with her acting. The result was a photorealistic animation that captured so much detail of Melina's performance. Epic said MetaHuman Animator will be available this summer as part of Unreal Engine 5.2.

Download the Unreal Engine 5.2 preview to try it out. It is available through the Epic Games Launcher or GitHub if you can access the source code. There could be some features I should have included in this article that may be present in the official release of Unreal Engine 5.2 or in its preview. I can't wait to see the unique content created from this new update!