What do you get when you give a Guinness World Record holder in game development a healthy dose of competition? The near-lifelike exploration of Unreal Engine 5.5.
Epic Games is a name recognised by everyone in the gaming community, primarily because of its staple game engine, Unreal Engine. As an engine that’s “built by developers for developers”, the software’s latest iteration doesn’t stray away from the promise. In fact, it goes a step further. Mobile developers and gamers have much to look forward to here, as new optimisations drive the mobile gaming world a step closer to its console counterparts.
Epic Games promises to revolutionise game development through 5.5’s first-of-its-kind features. Let’s explore what we can expect from Unreal Engine v5.5.
Unreal Engine 5.5 Features and What They Mean for MMO Mobile
We’re about to see a mobile gaming world more lifelike than ever before. One that “pushes the boundaries of high-fidelity 3D experiences and AAA-calibre content”. Before we dive into the features, let’s clarify how to get the most out of the update. If you’re not already using one, you’ll need a VPN for games to build and play within the intended security and efficiencies.
Creating high-end, multiplayer games on mobile and PC requires machines with good speeds and security. When testing any MMO mobile game, a VPN is essential to protect your operating system while connecting with strangers to avoid the risk of distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks. These attacks are designed to overwhelm server access, and as VPNs mask your IP address, any attacks are redirected to the VPN supplier. With a private network protecting your system, you can get stuck into the latest in game development in peace.
Immersive Megalights
Unreal Engine 5.5’s megalights enable users to use more light than ever before—not just a fraction more, but exponentially more lighting—to develop environments with a spectrum scale that mimics real life. All lights are movable and dynamic, so areas can light up as you move and focus on areas, or they can stay stationary as you explore.
With realistic area shadows and light volumetric fog, you can set ambiences and thrill expeditions like never before. In the 5.5 demo at the Unreal Fest Seattle, the team showcased a scene where 1,000 shadow-casting lights illuminated the hero’s path in real-time.
Racing to Realism in the Lumen Rendering System
The Lumen rendering system was introduced in Unreal Engine 5. It enables fully dynamic global illumination and reflection, taking major strides towards realism. In Unreal Engine 5.5, they take it a step further, with a new denoiser for ray tracing. This results in much better lighting and reflections, with more realistic environments and visually appealing scenes.
While they’re not quite there yet, Epic Games aims to hit 60fps ray tracing. At this level, they’ll essentially bring cinematic-quality lighting and visuals to the real-time mobile game world. We’re maybe only a couple of iterations away from a fully immersive and visually consistent experience.
Automatic Character Interaction
Unreal Engine 5.5 features a new Mutable plugin for character creation. Now, your character behaviours and skins are even closer to reality. Shirts are actually tucked into pants and hair is hidden under helmets. Unreal Engine 5.5 simplifies workflows by handling these interactions automatically. The Mutable plugin also optimises performance by merging mesh sections and textures and reducing draw calls.
Independent developers can hit the ground running, as a content sample is readily available. While it’s a neat advancement, the primary driving force behind the feature is to streamline character creation. Developers can focus on creative aspects and leave the technical hurdles to the software.
Nanite Skeletal Meshes: Character Creation and Animation Advancements
Nanite technology had its last update in Unreal Engine 5. Epic Games’ virtual geometry system introduced internal mesh format and rendering tech to materialise incredible object detail. It details only the surfaces that can be seen, and no more, enhancing load speed and fine-grained streaming.
Unreal Engine 5.5 now introduces nanite skeletal mesh, bringing the nanite-enabled rendering to characters. In 5.5, without any sacrifice on performance, we’ll see:
- Linear blend skinning with dynamic displacement
- Better rendering of characters
- Large crowd rendering
Coupling this nanite scalable mesh system with the introduction of real-time deformers results in a spike in animation capabilities, too. Developers can animate faster with more lifelike and responsive characters in Unreal Engine 5.5.
Mobile Optimisation
If you’re a mobile developer or gamer, you have even more to prepare for when Unreal Engine 5.5 is released in November. You can expect:
- UI visualisation tools for cross-platform development
- Performance and speed increases
- Better MetaSound support for enhanced audio
These features help to bridge the gap between mobile and console performance and complexity. In a time when mobile games are more popular than ever, this is a welcomed advancement for many developers and gamers alike.
Unreal Engine 5.5: A New Era of Game Development and Mobile Gaming
When placed next to its major competitor, Unity 6, Unreal Engine 5.5 shines a little brighter.
Many of the latest features do the heavy lifting for developers. They streamline time-consuming and technical tasks, leaving more room for creation. For gamers, megalights, rendering, and skeletal mesh create an immersive experience that feels incredibly realistic.
5.5 also pays homage to a once-neglected and now-growing community of mobile gamers. With mobile optimisations that bring console-quality gaming to handheld devices, the possibilities enabled by Unreal Engine 5.5 are just waiting to be discovered.
The launch is scheduled for this November, so keep your eyes peeled for updates from Epic Games on the future of gaming development.
