Epic Games has released Unreal 4.24. Main changes in the version include the retirement of Unreal Studio. Unreal Studio included several tools and plugins to make easy to import data from DCC and CAD applications. It was originally aimed at the architecture and engineering industries, however, Epic says it was finding an audience its traditional games userbase too and so the features have been incorporated into the regular Unreal Engine branch. This includes Datasmith, the umbrella name for a set of scene conversion tools that imported models and materials from 3DS Max, SketchUp Pro, Cinema 4D and many CAD/BIM tools. A new visual Dataprep system has also been added to make it easier to process and ingest data from these sources.
Several new tools are included for nondestructively creating and editing open-world landscapes that adapt to other scene elements alongside new skiesand Screen Space Global Illumination that scales across console and desktop platforms. An early version of a new strand-based hair and fur system that enables users to simulate and render hundreds of thousands of photoreal hairs at up to real-time speeds is also included in this release.
New USD support allows modellers and layout artists to work in parallel and enhancements to multi-display rendering make it easier to use out of the box (even on existing projects). Talking of ease of use out of the box. a new task-based wizard to give you a better starting point when creating new projects.
Also of note, following last month’s announcement about the Quixel Megascans acquisition. Megascans assets are now available in the Marketplace and through Quixel Bridge free for use in Unreal.
To find out more about these features and see the full list of what’s new, visit the online changelog.
