We'll also be improving license terms for all Quixel Megascans users.
Find out more about what Quixel and Epic together means for you.
Unreal Studio features for all Unreal Engine users
As of our upcoming Unreal Engine 4.24 release, the features of Unreal Studio are being rolled into Unreal Engine and will be made available to everyone for free. Unreal Studio, which has been in open beta since March 2018, is a suite of tools and services designed to augment Unreal Engine for architecture, manufacturing, and product design; however, its features have applicability across broader markets.
The most notable Unreal Studio feature that will now become a standard feature in Unreal Engine is Datasmith, a workflow toolkit that enables you to efficiently aggregate and optimize 3ds Max, Revit, SketchUp Pro, Cinema 4D, and a wide range of CAD and BIM data in Unreal Engine.
Making Datasmith available to all Unreal Engine users brings high-fidelity, whole-scene conversion to the masses! In addition, the new Visual Dataprep makes automating data preparation workflows more accessible so smaller, design-focused teams can benefit from them.
As part of this integration all Unreal Engine users will gain static mesh editing, basic UV projections, jacketing and defeaturing optimization tools, and a Variant Manager.
With the release of Unreal Engine 4.24, Unreal Studio will be retired. Users can continue to use existing versions, but they will no longer be supported or updated. Whether you are in games, architecture, automotive, film, television, live events, training and simulation, or any other industry, Unreal Engine is a single solution, with everyone benefitting from all features.
See the FAQ for more details about Unreal Studio.
More Unreal Engine 4.24 Highlights
Available now in Preview 1, Unreal Engine 4.24 ships with many upgrades and new features, notably:
- New nondestructive, layer-based Landscape workflows enable more interesting and engaging outdoor environments where the terrain automatically adapts to other elements in the world.
- The Sky Atmosphere component generates a physically accurate sky that can be updated dynamically depending on the time of day, and it can be viewed from the ground or from the air to create realistic-looking planetscapes.
- The new experimental strand-based hair and fur system brings characters to life with realistic, flowing hair.
- Screen-space global illumination allows for natural light-filled spaces using fewer resources.
- The Live Universal Scene Description (USD) Stage Actor creates a direct link to the USD file on disk for faster iteration and better collaboration.
- Project creation workflow now includes a wizard-style workflow centered around the industry or type of project you are creating so you only see relevant settings and tools.
And finally, to cap off today's news…
Twinmotion: extended free availability
Powered by Unreal Engine, Twinmotion is a highly intuitive, high-quality solution for fast and easy real-time visualization for architecture, construction, urban planning, and landscaping.
Previously, we'd announced that Twinmotion would remain free until November 2019; once downloaded, you can continue using the free version indefinitely. Today, we're extending the free availability until our next release of Twinmotion, which is anticipated to ship in the first quarter of 2020. The new version will offer even greater photorealism, improved assets, tools to facilitate collaborative workflows, and more.
See the FAQ for more details about Twinmotion.
We hope you're as excited about these changes as we are. If you'd like to experiment with the latest features, check out Unreal Engine 4.24 Preview 1 and please share your feedback with us. The production-ready version will be released in the coming weeks.
