In 1998, Tim Sweeney, the founder of Epic Games, released Unreal. It was meant to compete with popular games like Doom and Quake, and it did that very well, but Unreal’s biggest allure was that it gave players the ability to modify the game itself.

UE5 is already changing the way many industries are approaching the development of everything from the visualization of future products and or architecture to the way movies are made.

I won’t go into the history of Epic Games’ Unreal Engine (for that, feel free to explore the links below). I’m here to talk about Unreal Engine 5 (UE5). Epic Games released early access to UE5 in June, with an expected true release by early 2022. Early access gives creators a jump start on the new features and possible workflows. Of course, while working with an early access release is exciting, it is also likely to be somewhat frustrating as the engine is still in development and may not behave as expected. For production, people are advised to stick with UE4.

UE5 is already changing the way many industries are approaching the development of everything from the visualization of future products and architecture to the way movies are made. Here are a few examples.

• Games: This one is obvious, but three features in particular come to mind when talking about game development in UE5. Lumen lighting, Nanite graphics and Open Worlds world building features all remove the limits game developers previously faced due to file sizes and slow frame rates. Epic’s example, Valley of the Ancient, shows how great real-time games can look and perform.
• Architecture, Construction and Real Estate: UE has been a great tool for creating and displaying building designs or real estate offerings. Now UE5 allows real-time changes to the way a building or room looks, so collaborative teams of designers, developers and even city planning officials can see and solve issues quickly. See how one 3D modeling company uses UE5 for infrastructure modeling.
• Film and Television: One UE5’s greatest innovations is in pre-, post- and even real-time production. This was huge for creating immersive, virtual worlds with changeable perspectives and lighting in The Mandalorian. Go even deeper with Unreal Engine 5—The Future of Filmmaking.
• Broadcast and Live Events: The Weather Channel is breaking new ground using mixed reality to deliver a more dynamic experience. And The Jim Henson Company is using UE5 to power digital puppetry in Earth to Ned.
• Automotive: BMW is using mixed reality to drive collaboration and speed automotive design. And rather than shipping cars and production crews around the world, Volkswagen is turning to virtual production for greener car commercials.
• Simulation and Training: Global militaries are using virtual tactical military simulation training, and surgeons are learning new techniques in VR.
• So much more: Browse these Unreal Engine Spotlights to spur more for your industry.

I think the most significant new features are probably the Nanite and Lumen engines, but for myself, the most exciting new feature is the Chaos Physics engine, which allows objects to be destroyed in real time. It isn’t being talked about as much as other features, because it was quietly introduced as part of UE4. See Chaos Physics in action here. When I played with this feature, I opted to destroy statues of Disney characters rather than buildings, and I must say, it’s not just fun as heck to destroy stuff—Unreal Engine makes it very easy and intuitive to implement.

This is truly an amazing time to be a creator. My experience with Unreal Engine has been exciting, frustrating, educational, time consuming and but ultimately very satisfying.

UE5 – Screenshot from demo

UE5 – Screenshot from demo