Unreal Engine 5.4: What Are the Exciting New Features?
Get ready for the release of Unreal Engine 5.4, set to be released in late April 2024! In this blog post, we'll dive into the key features of Unreal Engine 5.4
Table Of Conents
- Motion Matching
- Rendering Improvments
- Developer Iteration
- Procedual Content Generation
- Audio Improvements
- Conclusion
Motion Matching
Unreal Engine 5.4 introduces a world-class update to animation systems, featuring production-ready motion matching technology. This revolutionary approach selects the best animation frame from a database, aiming for a perfect match to the character's current position and movement. It's designed for not just walking or running, but also complex actions like jumping and falling, ensuring seamless transitions and lifelike animations.
To support developers, Unreal Engine is releasing a sample project with over 500 AAA quality animations, free for all developers. This toolset is complemented by advanced AI and debugging tools, ensuring fluid and realistic motion in all scenarios.
Rendering Improvements
Significant performance enhancements are a highlight, with faster shadows, ray tracing, and variable rate shading for Nanite. These improvements lead to a 50% reduction in render thread time and a 25% decrease in GPU time in tests, making 5.4 the fastest and most efficient Unreal Engine yet.
Developer Iteration
The new Unreal Build Accelerator ensures C++ compiles up to three times faster, reducing shader compilation times and streamlining the onboarding process for cloud-based development. This focus on efficiency is designed to save developers time and resources.
Procedural Content Generation (PCG)
Unreal Engine 5.4 expands its PCG framework, enabling artists to create vast, art-directable worlds with ease. New features include runtime architecture generation and attribute set tables. The framework has been battle-tested in major projects like Lego Fortnite, showcasing its power to generate unique, expansive environments.
Audio Improvments
Meta Sounds, Unreal Engine's foundation for audio, brings next-gen sound design capabilities. From granular synthesized vehicles to dynamic ambience in games, Meta Sounds offers unparalleled control and quality. An experimental audio profiling tool called Insights further aids sound designers in crafting immersive audio landscapes.
Conclusion
Unreal Engine 5.4 is shaping up to be an essential upgrade for developers, with improvements across the board from animation and rendering to audio and content generation. Preview 1 is available now, with the full release coming soon.
To get notified of upcoming posts on Unreal Engine, I invite you to subscribe to our newsletter:
And if you are just getting started learning Unreal Engine, have a look at the Unreal Engine for Beginners Course :
