In addition to all of the previously released free content, the new Marketplace launches with a variety of asset packs including environments, props, characters, sounds, materials, animated meshes, and a number of other asset types.
For more information on the Marketplace, check out the Unreal Engine blog. In other engine-related news, Microsoft has released massive performance enhancements in Visual Studio for use with Unreal Engine 4. The enhancements are now live with Visual Studio’s Fall Update CTP1, bringing extreme relief to processing times for initial solution parsing, automatic solution rescanning, and forced solution rescanning.
The Epic team will cover off on all of the above and more during this week’s livestream, along with a live Q&A and Community Spotlight.
Finally, Epic has released an Unreal Engine PAX Prime 2014 photo album that shares the excitement around all the happenings at the booth (Bierzerkers, Senza Peso, UE4 tools, Infinity Blade), and the team has also published last week’s stream with Allegorithmic on Substance and UE4.
From the Press Release
Epic Games announces that starting today schools and universities have unlimited access to Unreal Engine 4 for free. Educational organizations can obtain Unreal Engine 4 access for faculty and students through unrealengine.com/education.
This new initiative sets up the academic community to take advantage of everything game engine technology has to offer and be a part of game development in its purest form.
Students can build incredible portfolios, make projects of any size and advance their careers using Unreal Engine technology. Unreal Engine 4 is the most accessible, beginner-friendly version of the engine ever created.
“Nothing is stopping students from honing the skills needed to enter the range of fields using Unreal Engine technology, from entertainment software and film to visualization, healthcare simulation and military training,” said Ray Davis, general manager, Unreal Engine. “Students who know Unreal Engine technology have a huge advantage when it comes to job placement.”
With Unreal Engine 4, recently named the best game engine by chief technology officers and industry experts, the availability of complete C++ source code along with Blueprint visual scripting brings the learning experience to the next level!
- Leading Platforms. Use Unreal Engine 4 for all major platforms including PC, mobile and VR.
- For Artists and Designers. Build complete games with Blueprint visual scripting, no coding required.
- For Programmers. Study, examine and extend Unreal Engine 4’s multimillion-line codebase through the GitHub community.
- Learning Materials. In addition to the tools, features and code, Epic provides free tutorials, extensive documentation, AnswerHub support, complete sample projects, wiki and forum access, as well as weekly livestreams because open access to the engine, information and the people behind it all is the best way to learn game development.