Epic Games announced that it has released the latest version of its Unreal Engine 5 (5.4). This release includes testing the introduction of a new VR toolkit, a major overhaul of the animation system, and enhancements to rendering capabilities.
Unreal Engine 5.4 introduces a new experimental toolkit with support for Meta VR headsets, Valve Index, and more. The tool leverages the "XR Creative Framework" and offers a significantly improved user experience compared to the previous toolkit.
Unreal Engine 5 also makes it quick and easy to rig characters and create animations, and the experimental modular control rigging feature allows developers to build animation rigs with modular parts.
"Motion Matching", which was previously a test feature, has also been officially launched. It is the framework of animation functions, and the action information of the characters in the scene can be used as keywords, and a relatively large database of captured animations can be searched.
Nanite is a virtualized micro-polygon geometry technology that adds an experimental tessellation feature that allows users to add cracks and bumps in detail when rendering without altering the original mesh. The implementation of Software Variable Rate Shading (VRS) has also significantly improved performance.