Unreal Engine 5.4 Sneak Peek | GDC 2024

Get a first look at the innovative new functionality of Unreal Engine 5.4! Join us for a presentation highlighting the top new features coming to game developers.

[@uenote3280]

00:00 intro 00:58 nanite improvement 06:23 localized volume fog (new in 5.4) 07:30 heterogeneous volume improvement 09:30 animation 10:34 animation - modular control rig 20:43 new character retargeting 22:11 skeleton editor 23:54 motion matching 27:12 PCG 28:26 audio

[@Khalid_Looby]

thx

[@johndawson6057]

May your god bless you❤

[@Kentkent-sd2xr]

🦒

[@leaivv]

@@johndawson6057That‘s funny

[@fredfinks]

How long until we see games like this that can run on say a 4080 equivalent? (or even of the unreal engines from 4 years ago?

[@Mutant_Fox]

17:43 "Control rig, it just works." Woah shots fired!

[@onceuponatimeonearth]

28:19 again lol

[@Barnacleboiii]

"It just works" - Todd Howard

[@Kimera92]

no shots fired, its just a light hearted meme joke

[@SubjektDelta]

that's usually what you say when you outsource a project

[@postprocessed]

hope it won't end up like creation engine :D :D

[@EVILBUNNY28]

Unreal is the perfect example of what a game engine should be. Focusing on tools and features to give developers the most creative freedom and control- not wringing out every last cent from them **cough** unity **cough**

[@pratheepace7832]

i downlode ue5.3 im new to ue i triede to downlode asset from quixel bridge but it showing error like asset not available in uasset format plzz help me to solve this

[@handgunpro3195]

True, but i've been using unreal engine since you had to pay 20 a month for it, fortnite is the only thing allowing it to be free.

[@XxZeldaxXXxLinkxX]

??? Unreal has had royalties way before unity

[@JamyzGenius]

​@@pratheepace7832 Hi! Wrote four replies [in my reply thread] but they seem to be going automatically to spam sorry. I cannot seem to link resources, but I did this exact google search in Edge. I hope it helps. "quixel bridge but it showing error like asset not available in uasset format" I found two great resources I hope they help. One is from Epic Forums dating April 1st. Title: "Bridge importing error - Plugins" Second is from Reddit. It says it is from a year ago - Title: "UE5.2 Quixel Bridge plugin not working" I will cite a reply/solution from the reddit thread. I hope this helps. From Priamarin: "So, I had the same issue and could fix it. I had to go to the Quixel Bridge website, had to log in with my epic account and activate the free plan." Citing from the Epic Forums: From Bananabananapie "I found what’s wrong it looks like I need to go to the Quixel website and sign up from there and choose the unreal engine plan, for it to work, even though I signed up already" What seems another solution too. From Hallelujah4Ever "Actually there is no need to sign up again, all you need is to login to Quixel with your whatever account and then hit the blue subscribe button and accept it, that’s all." I hope this helps! sorry for not helping further. I haven't used Quixel Bridge since around 5.0/5.1. But truly hoping these fix the issue. If the reddit resource is not helpful, please check the Epic Forums one. It has many replies. But overall, the fix seems to be the same. Cheers! Reddit: www.reddit.com/r/unrealengine/comments/13fmcd7/ue52_quixel_bridge_plugin_not_working/ Epic Forums: forums.unrealengine.com/t/bridge-importing-error/837237/4 I linked the resources and put this comment in another reply thread with the linked forum posts. I hope this one goes through! last one before I give up sorry. I hope these help!

[@mrfatuchi]

@@handgunpro3195 I'd pay that same money for any engine that has proper support. Tired of all this free nonsense which in the end just makes a product shittier. Unity, in its basic form, lacks so so many features that you could hardly call it an engine. And then you have to install bunch of packages and deal with their shortcomings... But I cant complain because its free...

[@Sozidar]

Guys. New gizmo. Finally. NEW GIZMO.

[@ryanisanart]

New gizmo doesn’t allow ctrl+mouse movement unfortunately. I think it’s bugged. edit: sorry i'm wrong, alt+drag to duplicate doesn't work, which he even mentions in the video.

[@ComfortZoneComic]

Good shout tnx

[@tjrizvi251]

Did they fix vertex snapping?

[@davinsaputraartandgamedev9453]

@@ryanisanart omg really

[@ryanisanart]

@@davinsaputraartandgamedev9453yes, makes it unusable

[@bruceoberleitner3031]

Awesome presentation Daryl! You covered a lot of ground in just 30 minutes. Do you have any other presentations available for us to watch?

[@JamyzGenius]

21:11 - Thank youuuu!!! I was doing some stuff on 5.3 using this tool, which was a little bit tedious, but the updated method looks awesome and much more friendly! It looks so much easier! - Thanks for all the work on this update!

[@pratheepace7832]

i downlode ue5.3 im new to ue i triede to downlode asset from quixel bridge but it showing error like asset not available in uasset format plzz help me to solve this

[@JamyzGenius]

​@@pratheepace7832 Hi! Wrote three replies but they seem to be going to spam sorry. I cannot seem to link resources, but I did this exact google search in Edge. I hope it helps. "quixel bridge but it showing error like asset not available in uasset format" I found two great resources I hope they help. One is from Epic Forums dating April 1st. Title: "Bridge importing error - Plugins" Second is from Reddit. It says it is from a year ago - Title: "UE5.2 Quixel Bridge plugin not working" I will cite a reply/solution from the reddit thread. I hope this helps. From Priamarin: "So, I had the same issue and could fix it. I had to go to the Quixel Bridge website, had to log in with my epic account and activate the free plan." Citing from the Epic Forums: From Bananabananapie "I found what’s wrong it looks like I need to go to the Quixel website and sign up from there and choose the unreal engine plan, for it to work, even though I signed up already" What seems another solution too. From Hallelujah4Ever "Actually there is no need to sign up again, all you need is to login to Quixel with your whatever account and then hit the blue subscribe button and accept it, that’s all." I hope this helps! sorry for not helping further. I haven't used Quixel Bridge since around 5.0/5.1. But truly hoping these fix the issue. If the reddit resource is not helpful, please check the Epic Forums one. It has many replies. But overall, the fix seems to be the same. Cheers!

[@JamyzGenius]

​@@pratheepace7832 Hi! I cannot seem to reply at all, wrote four detailed replies but all went to spam sorry. Cannot seem to link resources either. But google these two threads below. I hope they help you Pra! Cheers! One is from Epic Forums dating April 1st. Title: "Bridge importing error - Plugins" Second is from Reddit. It says it is from a year ago - Title: "UE5.2 Quixel Bridge plugin not working"

[@terenteborfasul]

Hey Epic games! As a big fan and daily user of your engine I would be very interested in some critical fixes for older features, like: - world partition bugs and performance - level streaming bugs and performance - BPPs and PLAs breaking all the time from redirector fix - HLODs bugs and performance, like not baking along world axis

[@mootzartdev]

Yeah they really need to fix old stuff before ramming in new features that only people at Epic can seem to use.

[@javierignite1895]

yeah it's been ages since a decent update of WP

[@xvxluka222]

They should also update the build system to use cmake or sth like that

[@bee3D]

@@mootzartdevseriously, it seems like absolutely nobody but the best of the best WITHIN EPIC can even show off the features that they make

[@Isaacrl67]

While I agree that more attention to bugs would be great, even 5.3 had a slew of bug fixes for world partition. They love to show off the features in these videos, but if you review the release notes you can see they are also hunting down bugs.

[@MegaMiley]

Thanks for showcasing how to use the modular control rigs for vehicles! Literally was trying to do that myself this week and couldn't quite figure out how it was supposed to work :D

[@scrie100]

Wow just seeing how well thought out and functional this software is makes me wanna become a game dev on it's own

[@MrSiasman]

Nice to have an animation guy on the game engine team.:)

[@Megasteakman]

Wow, this is incredible! Love these features, I'm so excited!

[@Neotrax_City]

I started testing the new features in version 5.4, the most interesting option for me is Motion Graphics. Welcome to our new Neotrax city, it's being created in Unreal Engine ! :)

[@King-O-Hell]

I've always just been a gamer but it's really cool to see behind the veil a little bit, in regard to the graphical side of things. I never cease to be impressed by all of this.

[@aEtherEater]

Finally getting some vehicle support. It also looks like new animation dataset system is going to make setting up complex characters so much easier!

[@prometheus_beard]

Ohhh kayyy now I'm actually excited... last UE film I uploaded was my 100k GAW video with Maarten from DBK as the blacksmith, but these new upgrades and features are going to make my next offering far better. Thank you all who work on UE. Absolutely amazing.

[@rtm1619]

I was making a game in unity these past 2 months.. (day job as a c++ quant dev, used to do game dev about 6 years ago, but making a return) I made a huge mistake. Moving over to Unreal guys. It isn't even comparable.

[@CarTastic-fv6eo]

Same there, but currently need to upgrade my GPU as my old 2060 is struggling with detailed scene.

[@St4rdog]

It is comparable, but Unity are bad at marketing. Epic are good at hyping things up for normies who think they are inventing these features. 10:00 Control rig - Unity "Animation Rigging" package. Since 2018. 22:00 Animation Retargeting - Unity Mecanim humanoid retargeting since 10 years ago. Lumen (Runtime GI) - Unity Enlighten Realtime GI (yes, it's baked mesh positional information, so no light through a door that opens, but it is fully realtime direct/indirect bounced lighting). Since 10 years ago (kzbin.info/www/bejne/h3-7k3SLgNCVe8U) Also has Screen Space GI in HDRP, but obviously not the same as Lumen, and uses reflection probe information, but still useful, and handles emissive better than Lumen which creates unusable blobs/pulsing from screen space. Note how boring and lacking in visuals this talk is compared to Unreal Lumen - kzbin.info/www/bejne/p5Svc3mMe7qmf5o

[@indiecore-2022]

I published a game I built in unity, then I decided to try unreal and its not only easier to learn, but Blueprints allow you to never write a line of c++ and the community has custom blueprint plugins for everything literally

[@mariuspuiu9555]

it depends on what you want to. both engines are great.

[@CarTastic-fv6eo]

@@mariuspuiu9555 Unity is nice engine but has bad management and after latest drama with pricing i wont risk on it anymore.

[@ThatTechGuy123]

That was really quick but still got sooooo much out of it! You are really great at explaining just enough to get us started and then we can dive deeper in some documentation and tutorials.

[@Nerdsbew4re]

Very cool talk Daryl! I wish all the unreal videos could pack this much detail into 30 minutes

[@zachansen8293]

But don't you want to know more about fortnight? What about fortnight? And don't forget about fortnight. It pays the bills, I guess, but it's super dull.

[@metternich05]

I can't wait to see next gen games built on this and using the full potential of the new technology.

[@WeaponxiD]

And 4090 in min req for 1080p with dlss performance

[@magnomliman8114]

@@WeaponxiD always the cringe comment that cant understand anything and just know that the 4090 is the fastest gpu .typal Roblox kid comment.

[@WeaponxiD]

@@magnomliman8114 wow really? lol

[@Deliveredmean42]

@@WeaponxiD when these future games comes out that GPU will be seen as a midrange and overly power hungry card.

[@RealSeanSchumacher]

@@WeaponxiDI've actually been making a game with my buddy for over a year now and for being unpackaged and pretty unoptimized, it doesn't run terribly. Im ready to try out the new tesselation because before, it was harder to set up and had a pretty big performance impact (I had to take it out). No matter what, we're getting to a point in videogame development where we are doing things we could do 10 years ago but with much less impact on hardware.

[@crub1n0]

I really love that "Skin weights paint and editor" tool, superb!👍👍

[@makeyourgame2210]

Best Engine Ever. Thank you for your job

[@ScyrousFX]

Sure, if we ignore the traversal stutter & shader compilation stutter.

[@ThreatInteractive]

Best non-proprietary engine* unfortunately for consumers.

[@piotrek7633]

everything made with unreal engine 5 is a lag/stutter fiesta, it takes one low detailed texture to break the immersion, and overall i'd rather stick with blocky games than realistic enviroments that literally hurt the eye due to the amount of different details in colors. Realistic detail works with our eyes because we can focus our sight and our brain blocks the rest, with games its simply not the case we see all the detail, and without lying its often giving me a headache, especially if you have post effects turned on. Our bodies don't like to look at too much stuff at once, that's why top games are often simplistic

[@zachansen8293]

Best engine ever.... so far.

[@zachansen8293]

@@ScyrousFX shader compilation stutter is on the dev's.

[@BreakBackReality]

I've been waiting for motion matching from epic games for a very long time, finally we got it! Thank yout for developing Unreal Engine in the right direction

[@FitriZainOfficial]

HV already looks good before but painful to work with in previous version, im glad to see some improvement. Looking forward for 5.4!

[@crs11becausecrs10wastaken]

Nanite skeletal mesh experimental confirmed in 5.5 💪

[@pratheepace7832]

i downlode ue5.3 im new to ue i triede to downlode asset from quixel bridge but it showing error like asset not available in uasset format plzz help me to solve this

[@fortnite.burger]

Try a different asset​@@pratheepace7832

[@DeJayAnim]

So amped for this!

[@behrampatel4872]

Daryl is to VFX peeps what Chris Murphy is for game devs. They both show you so much cool stuff you don't want to close the tab. Cheers for such an informative demo Daryl. b

[@Mojo545]

Awesome that we can render snow places so beautiful now. Than the next gen can at least experience snow in the metaverse as we are now doing our best to melt it all!

[@Liam-fr1lr]

modular control rig setup is absolutely massive

[@JM_Traslo]

Any chance we can see uploads go into 1440p format for KZbin? even if the underlying video is 1080p, the bitrate of 1440p youtube would help so much when there's a lot of dense detail and smaller text.

[@DenisKhoninov]

That NEW GIZMO! HYYYYYPE HYPE HYPE! Maybe 5 years later we can have also quick snapping....

[@nekronavt]

I would really like to see weights transfer tools in the skeletal mesh editor for modular characters skinning.

[@Xenthorx]

Great video, covers a lot of things in detail, great presenter !

[@Kor3Gaming_Ghost]

Gonna have so much fun with this tools on my character

[@tywins3669]

I know nothing about game development but seeing this gives me a greater appreciation for the work and technology that goes into making the games i enjoy.

[@ArtVandelayInc]

Just wow! Mind-blowing stuff as always

[@n1lknarf]

Would also be cool if you added a min/max input for radius in the nodes "get random nav mesh point". It's impossible to get a higher number than 1 without crazy acrobatics.

[@Im_Ninooo]

amazing update! I just hope they manage to fix attenuated audio being silent when exported with the Movie Render Queue :/

[@getshotUK]

Awesome thanks for the great presentation :)

[@antonbaton1120]

I am not a developer, just a gamer, and i am very impressed of all this works of UE... This mean the games will be more beautiful, more realistic. Because it will be cheaper for developer to implement those wonderful features! So glad of this progress... i hope it all will be implemented on VR to so we can play or enjoy the new, better VR worlds )

[@SonnyBear5]

5.4 seems like the BEST time to get into UE5. I’ve been dabbling with the engine and wow there is so much to learn. Still working on basic mechanics and understanding the spaghetti code haha

[@pratheepace7832]

i downlode ue5.3 im new to ue i triede to downlode asset from quixel bridge but it showing error like asset not available in uasset format plzz help me to solve this

[@NatJSBelza]

Glad to see Daryl again. Glad you left Autodesk for Epic. Back in the days, I would watch Autodesk's yearly product presentation, and I always look forward to listening to Daryl showcase new features for Maya.

[@supremebeme]

damn that localized fog is nice. also a 2x speed improvement since 5.0?! noice.

[@camaxide]

Looks really good that the smoke cast shadow - but looks equally odd that the fire from the barrel does not generate any lighting - I would wish for that before the fog really :D

[@Immortal_BP]

unreal never misses with these updates, everytime is crazy good stuff

[@ChrisM541]

Fantastic. Superb programmers clearly proud of their work, and remember, only the tip of this update iceberg was shown here.

[@muviing5427]

He's explanation is so great to understand and exciting. I can grab more information from his clear and easy to understand explanations..

[@remedyrenders5746]

Great presentation!!

[@RiderZer0]

Man I might need to learn this program. I’ve always wanted to make my own game, it seems like epic has made a platform easy enough for someone to learn without going to a university.

[@jaymac7203]

This setting would be great for "The Thing" game 🤔

[@btarg1]

Modular rigging is incredible!!! ❤

[@clinteverett4729]

Bring back Unreal Tournament.

[@fddesign]

Awesome new features :D

[@SuperZymantas]

Epic UE eatch time i fell like x-max eatch time inovation! Well done Team!

[@MaleOreo]

motion matching is going to be amazing

[@perfectionist724]

Great presentation! Thank you very much!

[@darylobert]

Thanks for the kind words, had so much fun making this content.

[@perfectionist724]

@@darylobert will that scene be available to download?

[@michelprins]

Wow, this is exciting stuff! Thanks, Epic Games! As a big fan and daily user of Unreal Engine for years, I'd love to see deeper integration with 3D tools like Blender, as well as built-in AI animation tools similar to Adobe's Mixamo. Back in 2000, I even built a 3D virtual art gallery called the MP-ArtStation .

[@seanspitzer5537]

That Daryl guy is pretty cool! :P

[@darylobert]

Thanks sean:-)

[@inmatejason]

wow, i remember the days of being amazed at 3DFX games.

[@immortal3164]

cant wait for 5.4!!!

[@Tethmes]

I'm glad there are people out there who know what tf this all means so that I don't have to.

[@checkerbene]

Any plans on easy Vertex to Vertex snapping?

[@HBasch]

AMAZING ! When is 5.4 going to be out ? thanks guys amazing work

[@darylobert]

soon, very soon

[@mangaming1942]

Nice job guys!!!

[@SixthFourthEighty]

you can use the debugger to make video scenes too? if u cant program a scene. just do it in game and then use the rewind and capture what you want ?

[@Jinkel]

Im sure it does.

[@SixthFourthEighty]

@@Jinkel awesome. im gonna give it a go.

[@e11world]

This is next level stuff!

[@everymadestuff4298]

Localized Fog Volume is looking really promising!!

[@Vartazian360]

How about fixing cpu optimization, shadse and traversal stutter in the engine?

[@DOKTORFUZZEL]

I didn't understand a single word that was said, but I'm just fascinated by the technological progress.

[@cHelllo4eK]

Огромное спасибо за такое обновления , мне всегда нравился стиль Unreal Engine , и я сейчас не только за движок а вообще за все , все максимально просто и удобно делают , нету лишний информации как у других , даже локализацию движка сделали , а для новичка это просто супер , одним словом просто молодцы хлопаю стоя 👏

[@El.Duder-ino]

It looked already amazing with 5.0 and now it's truly "Unreal"😉😁

[@TheMarauderOfficial]

sincere question prior to localised fog did ue games just use billboard textures for “localised fog”?

[@user-nn5kq1kj7r]

Fantastic presentation

[@blocbonbon]

Man I want to drive that truck through that snow!!!

[@unreolog8699]

Where can I find the mentioned "Jasper" demo?

[@PhoenixTheGame]

I switched from unity to UE5 a few months ago The best decision I've ever made

[@egretfx]

there's no way unity engine will be able to catch up with how good the graphics are in-engine. absolutely phenomenal!

[@jonzie24]

You could see some of those features in that Marvel 1943 game. I wonder if those advancements were made because of the help that Epic was supposed to get from the likes of Coalition and CD Project Red. Can't wait for Gears 6 and Witcher 4!

[@MVEProducties]

Hopefully more support for macOS and M3 Macs?

[@enermaxstephens1051]

Just one question - When will it use Ai to take voice commands? Instead of building the whole scene from scratch, by hand, when can I simply tell this program what to do?

[@arikanidjar]

Leaps and bounds!!!!! ue just keeps evolving.

[@GUGUCOLOR]

What is the name of this winter asset?

[@TheRoadDogII]

cant wait till it is 5 years later so we can all enjoy a smoth game experience.

[@Rodutchi]

You guys are incredible damn, if only I could use these features on my 1650. So sad

[@overwatch540]

I'm using it on 1650s

[@Joeballs187]

Unreal 4.3 probably run just fine I had a 1650 and I did alot with unreal and the cryteck engine is good with lower end tech as well

[@Rodutchi]

I didn't say am not using it or that I want it to run, am talking about these features...bruh

[@blinkrogue1344]

Why can't you use these features? ​@@Rodutchi

[@MaticTheProto]

1:11 UNIMOG WOHOOOOO :D

[@simulacrumgames]

UE just keeps getting more insane! Unrealer?

[@Bloodline2009]

Remember the community Unreal Tournament game that never got finished because Fortnite launched. Please don't forget about it, still plenty of fans out there.

[@meezemusic]

Nice presentation, cant wait for 5.4

[@ryanisanart]

When will localized volumetric fog work with the Path Tracer?

[@GarethNN]

Damn. Wow.

[@diegogomez6634]

I remember that I use to follow this guy, Daryl, several years ago when he was a Maya evangelist, I was wondering what happened to him, it is Great to see him again with smoking guns on his hands!

[@darylobert]

Yes, it's me; I was working on Maya for over 20 years. Been over at Epic for almost 6 years now, time is flying and the tech is moving so fast.

[@pezz0tti]

New gizmo is the best feature!!

[@SubzeroBlack68]

Amazing

[@dieubermensch]

The people want lumen in twinmotion VR! I love you unreal ❤

[@sadboy_dev]

looks great on presentation, we're yet to see some games that actually look that good using unreal 5

[@nickysky1312]

really impressive !

[@aliactsc]

Blown away 😯😯😯😯😯😯

[@christians7706]

Fogging amazing!🎉

[@supremebeme]

modular control rig is insane!

[@supremebeme]

and the retargeting ... good god it's improved!!!!!

[@VrilyaSS]

PLEASE MAKE IT EASIER FOR VR-INTEGRATION,like UEVR, ty!

[@jai.witdasauce5612]

just waiting for the full release