At the State of Unreal event during GDC 2024, Epic Games unveiled the first preview of Unreal Engine 5.4, showcasing significant improvements in rendering performance. This new version brings important updates to Nanite, including Nanite tessellation, allowing developers to achieve higher visual fidelity without increasing mesh size on disk. One of the highlights of UE 5.4 was the demonstration by Skydance, presenting an exclusive look at Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra.
The full release of Unreal Engine 5.4 is scheduled for the end of April 2024, however, it's worth noting that preview versions like this one have not undergone full quality testing and are actively in development. Epic Games recommends developers treat it as unstable until the final release.
One of the major innovations of the 5.4 update is a significant enhancement of animation capabilities. The engine now incorporates a new and efficient animation technique called Motion Matching, which has already proven its effectiveness in games such as Fortnite, across various platforms.
In the near future, Epic Games plans to release a free educational project including over 500 AAA-level animations obtained from high-quality motion capture data. This project will utilize a locomotion and movement dataset demonstrated in the demo presentation. Thanks to extensive testing during LEGO Fortnite development, games can now be fully animated using Control Rig and Sequencer without the need for data exchange between applications.
The update also includes multi-threaded "cooking," which now runs three times faster and compiles fewer shaders in the editor during cooking, significantly speeding up game development workflow.
Sound designers will appreciate the new Audio Insights tool designed for creating and debugging next-generation audio, enhancing the overall sound design of games.
Furthermore, the engine's tools for procedural content generation (PCG) have been significantly improved, particularly with a new PCG biome creation plugin, which serves as an example of a data-oriented, flexible tool developed with a systemic approach. This plugin showcases the latest advancements within the framework, providing developers with capabilities to create dynamic and captivating game worlds.
