The new real-time demonstration shows off some of the new features and improvements that are coming as a part of the Unreal Engine 5.2 Preview release. It should be available as of today via Epic Games launcher and GitHub.
At their State of Unreal presentation in 2023, Epic showcased the new features coming to Unreal 5.2. These new features include Substrate, a new method for handling materials, and new procedural generation tools.
The new demo shows a photorealistic, and familiar Rivian R1T all-electric truck, which slowly manoeuvres through an almost lifelike environment, built with Quixel Megascans. The demo shows the new Substrate shading system, allowing artists "to compose and layer different shading models" in order to achieve levels of fidelity and quality that were not possible before Unreal Engine 5.2. Epic does note that these are still experimental, as this is still the Preview release of the Unreal Engine 5.2.
Epic also talks about the latest physics advancements, with tire deformation, air suspension, as well as realistic fluid simulation and water rendering. The Unreal Engine 5.2 Preview also ships with a new in-editor and run-time Procedural Content Generation (PCG) tools, which allow artists to define rules and parameters in order to quickly populate an area in the environment.
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