Epic Releases Unreal Engine 4.3 for Game Development with Over 500 Enhancements

Monday, July 21, 2014

Epic released the latest update to Unreal Engine, Unreal Engine 4.3, which integrates a wide range of enhancements and new features for subscribers. Since launching in March at GDC with its monthly subscription model, Unreal Engine 4 has seen a continual stream of improvements, with over 500 coming in the 4.3 update alone.

The 4.3 update brings greatly improved mobile support, new rendering features, improved Blueprint workflows, and an enhanced experience on Mac and laptops. The update also offers new World Composition tools, spline features, and the preview of Paper2D. Epic is also shipping SpeedTree 7 support, their work on Metal API for iOS 8 to date, and new Oculus Rift features such as time warping.

4.3 highlights include:

- Oculus DK2 support out of the box along with the "Couch Knights" demo

- Metal API support

- SpeedTree 7 integration

- Many Blueprint improvements

- New rendering features, including skylight global illumination, distance field ambient occlusion and lot translucency

- Strides toward a better experience running the engine on Mac and laptops

- Paper2D preview: UE4 now supports 2D projects

- A Sidescroller template game to get up and running with 2D

Epic also recently announced its upcoming UE4 West Coast Dev tour, where the UE4 development team will hit the road to offer training sessions and casual meet-ups.