Today Epic Games has released the latest version of its engine -- which includes an array of improvements for working with VR tech; the A Boy and His Kite demo from GDC will be free for Unreal Engine users to download this week, too.
Users of the engine will be able to pull apart the demo -- which you can see above -- and use its content and code for both commercial and non-commercial use.
The engine also adds a litany of improvements for VR developers, whether they're working with Oculus, Valve, or Sony tech. Notably, the engine now supports SteamVR and the HTC Vive headset.
Here's the list of VR-related upgrades, direct from Epic:
- Now updated to Oculus Rift SDK 0.6
- Now updated to Gear VR SDK 0.5
- Support for the new Oculus Audio SDK
- Comprehensive support for Valve’s SteamVR API and HTC Vive hardware
- Improved Morpheus for PlayStation 4 features, including support for 120Hz reprojection, support for 60Hz and 120Hz dev kits, and high-quality 3D audio playback
- Updated support for Leap Motion
Other improvements include a new grass rendering system and foliage tools, depth-of-field and level of detail features, improvements to in-game replays, and a handy asset size mapper that quickly reveals how much memory assets use. There are other new features, too.
For more information, you can read Epic's official blog post or the release notes for version 4.8.