About Unreal Engine 4.3
Yesterday, Epic released the latest update to Unreal Engine, Unreal Engine 4.3, which integrates a wide range of enhancements and new features for subscribers. Since launching in March at GDC with its revolutionary monthly subscription model, Unreal Engine 4 has seen a continual stream of improvements, with over 500 coming in the 4.3 update alone.
The 4.3 update brings greatly improved mobile support, awesome new rendering features, improved Blueprint workflows, and strides toward an excellent experience on Mac and laptops. The update also boasts new World Composition tools, spline features, and the preview of Paper2D. Today Epic is also shipping SpeedTree 7 support, their work on Metal API for iOS 8 to date, and new Oculus Rift features such as time warping. Specific highlights found below!
Epic also recently announced its upcoming UE4 West Coast Dev tour, where the UE4 development team will hit the road to offer training sessions and casual meet-ups designed to engage and empower. You can find a list of cities and dates here.
4.3 highlights --> more than 500 updates!
- Oculus DK2 support out of the box along with the "Couch Knights" demo
- Metal API support
- SpeedTree 7 integration
- Many Blueprint improvements
- Awesome new rendering features, including skylight global illumination, distance field ambient occlusion and lot translucency
- Nice strides toward a better experience running the engine on Mac and laptops
- Paper2D preview: UE4 now supports 2D projects!
- Sidescroller template game to help folks get up and running with 2D
- Many other major additions
About SpeedTree Integration
Unreal Engine 4.3, released today by Epic Games, becomes the first version of the popular engine to integrate the SpeedTree run-time. With the new version launch, UE4 subscribers can add dynamic, animated SpeedTree models to their projects, and edit them as well by subscribing to the award-winning AAA SpeedTree Modeler.
UE4 developers who have upgraded to 4.3 are invited to the new "SpeedTree for UE4" store, at UE4Trees.com, where they will find:
- Three free sample trees that may be immediately dropped into any 4.3 project. These high-end, beautiful trees come fully-enabled with lightmap-ready UVs, dynamic LOD and wind effects.
- An initial library of 15 SpeedTree trees and plants (including the "Haunted Tree," exclusive to UE4 subscription!), with seasonal variations, a full range of effects and various triangle counts. List prices will be set between $39 USD and $21 USD, depending on the model, but are being promoted for the first 10 days of launch with a special 33% off price. The sale will expire July 26th.
- The SpeedTree for UE4 Subscription Modeler, available on Windows and Mac OSX at $19 USD per month. No royalties, per-title or per-platform fees apply. The SpeedTree Modeler license renews automatically, unless cancelled prior to the renewal date, and all models created and edited with the SpeedTree Modeler will continue to operate in UE4 after the Modeler expires.
- Thorough technical documentation, videos and news about the integration of UE4 and SpeedTree, the vegetation toolset that has been a must-have for AAA game developers since 2002.
"We've been relying on SpeedTree for our own game development since 2007 and are using it for numerous projects today," noted Tim Sweeney, Epic Games founder and CEO. "We are very pleased to provide these outstanding vegetation tools to the wide range of developers using UE4, and encourage folks to grab the free sample trees and try out the Modeler."
SpeedTree for UE4 subscription features include:
- Lightmap-ready UVs: Automatically creates extremely efficient lightmap UVs for all models
- Wind Effects: Delivers scalable and tunable real-time wind effects with high-end animation used by visual effects studios for feature films
- Seamless LOD Transitions: Dynamically and automatically generates smooth, tunable LOD transitions that are built into vegetation models
- Multi-platform UE4 Support: Works on any platform that UE4 supports
- UE4 Foliage Painting: Works with instanced foliage rendering and instance painting, with full wind support and per-instance color variation.
- Full UE4 Integration: Builds SpeedTree objects on top of UE4 static meshes, ensuring integration with future version enhancements
- Perpetual Version Control: Provides the latest SpeedTree version and features, as long as the subscription is active
Epic Games and Unreal Engine, Developed by Epic Games, the award-winning Unreal Engine is known for world-class graphics, tools and scalability across PC, console and mobile platforms. Unreal Engine technology is designed to accelerate developers' productivity for creating high-quality games, applications, training simulations, visualizations, digital films and animated entertainment. To access UE4, visit http://www.unrealengine.com/ and follow @UnrealEngine.
SpeedTree for Games, winner of a Front Line Award for middleware, delivers amazingly natural real-time trees and plants with seamless LOD transitions, an array of lighting, physics and wind effects, as well as an SDK that can be programmed to support any level of engine integration. SpeedTree includes SpeedTree Modeler, which offers a unique hybrid of hand and procedural modeling options and has been used in countless games and a growing list of movies, including Iron Man 3, Star Trek Into Darkness, The Lone Ranger and World War Z . SpeedTree was created by Interactive Data Visualization, Inc. (IDV), founded in 1999 to develop graphic and visualization tools for a wide variety of industries. For more information, visit www.speedtree.com and follow @SpeedTreeInc.