Epic Games has released Unreal Engine 5.2, a major update to its popular game engine. The new version includes a number of new features and improvements, including:
- Native support for Apple Silicon Macs, which should allow for significantly improved performance on M1 and M2 Macs.
- A new iPad app for virtual productions that works with the Unreal Engine’s ICVFX (In-Camera VFX) editor.
- A “Procedural Content Generation framework” that lets you populate large scenes with the Unreal Engine assets of your choice, making it faster to build large worlds.
- A new feature called Substrate that allows material creation with more control over the look and feel of objects used in in real-time applications like games or for linear content creation.
The update is interesting in the context of Apple’s antitrust dispute with Epic Games over Fortnite commissions on the App Store. Apple largely won that fight, as an appeal panel found that the company wasn’t a monopolist in the distribution of iOS apps. Back in 2020, Apple tried to suspend Epic Games’ developer account, but that move was later blocked by a judge.
The release of Unreal Engine 5.2 is a significant development for Epic Games and the wider game development community. The new version of the engine offers a number of powerful new features that will make it easier and faster to create high-quality games and other real-time experiences.
Here is a more detailed look at some of the new features in Unreal Engine 5.2:
