New Delhi, May 26 (IANS): Fortnite developer Epic Games on Wednesday announced that Unreal Engine 5 is now available in Early Access to game developers, offering them the opportunity to start testing features and prototyping their upcoming games.
The real-time 3D creation platform Unreal Engine 5 will deliver the freedom, fidelity and flexibility to create next-generation games that will blow players' minds.
"Groundbreaking new features such as Nanite and Lumen provide a generational leap in visual fidelity, while the new World Partition system enables the creation of expansive worlds with scalable content," the company said in a statement.
"As always, we're committed to battle-testing the engine in-house, as we prepare to ship Fortnite on Unreal Engine 5 across all platforms down the line," it added.
Unreal Engine 5 is expected to ship in early 2022 and will empower creators across all industries to deliver stunning real-time content and experiences.
The Early Access build has only been tested on game development workflows and offers a chance for game developers to go hands-on with some of our most exciting new features.A
Additional features and other improvements for all industries will be part of the full Unreal Engine 5.0 release in early 2022.
One of the key features Nanite virtualised micro polygon system lets users create games with massive, unprecedented amounts of geometric detail.A
Nanite intelligently streams and processes only the detail you can perceive, largely removing poly count and draw call constraints and eliminating time-consuming tasks.
Lumen is a fully dynamic global illumination solution that lets users create dynamic, believable scenes.
With Lumen, indirect lighting adapts on the fly to changes to direct lighting or geometry, such as changing the sun's angle with the time of day, turning on a flashlight, or opening an exterior door.
"To free up more space for viewport interactions, we've added the ability to easily summon and stow the Content Browser and to dock any editor tab to the collapsible sidebar," the company said.
"You can now quickly access frequently used properties in the Details panel with a new favouriting system, while the new Create button on the main toolbar lets you easily place Actors into your world," it added.