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Smash hit ‘Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’ was built on the Unreal Engine (GABRIEL BOUYS) \u00b7 GABRIEL BOUYS\/AFP\/AFP <\/p>\n Smash hit ‘Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’ was built on the Unreal Engine (GABRIEL BOUYS) \u00b7 GABRIEL BOUYS\/AFP\/AFP <\/p>\n
Massively popular video game “Fortnite”, TV news graphics and acclaimed animated series and films have something in common: use of the powerful Unreal Engine that is quickly becoming the go-to tool for 3D projects beyond the video games industry.<\/p>\n
Created for the 1998 game “Unreal” by Tim Sweeney — who is now the head of “Fortnite” developer Epic Games — the engine was soon made available for other companies.<\/p>\n
It was a rare move in an industry where most studios develop their own engines, an expansive term for the software controlling the main characteristics of a game world such as sound, graphics and physics simulation.<\/p>\n
In recent years, the ease of use and power of the latest version of Unreal Engine has seen it integrated into hit games titles such as China’s “Black Myth: Wukong” or France’s “Clair Obscur: Expedition 33”.<\/p>\n
“Tomb Raider” star Lara Croft will be crafted in Unreal Engine in her upcoming fresh adventures too, said Scot Amos, director of the Crystal Dynamics studio.<\/p>\n
Using Unreal “gives us access to a broad swath” of developers, he said, calling it “an ubiquitous tool that so many people will use and get”.<\/p>\n
The off-the-shelf solution saves on time and costs as “we don’t have to keep teaching people how to use a proprietary tech” developed in-house, Amos added.<\/p>\n
More than one quarter (28 percent) of games released for PCs in 2024 were built using Unreal Engine, according to specialist data firm Sensor Tower.<\/p>\n
“It’s become truly indispensable in the industry,” said Brice Roy, director of France’s Institute for Digital Creation and Animation (ICAN), a training school with sites in several cities.<\/p>\n
“The engine is preconfigured, which is what makes it so attractive: as soon as you create a rough build, it looks really beautiful, it works right away”.<\/p>\n
– ‘Planned to diversify’ –<\/p>\n
Epic Games’ ambition for Unreal Engine is not limited to underpinning large swaths of the game industry.<\/p>\n
A first technical demonstration of its real-time modelling power for high-end carmaker McLaren drew attention from other sectors too.<\/p>\n
Unreal has since been applied to modelling architectural projects, onboard navigation for cars and reconstructions in television news reports.<\/p>\n
Film and TV have not hesitated either, with Epic Games’ tech deployed in Star Wars series “The Mandalorian” and Oscar-winning short film “War is Over”.<\/p>\n
“We planned to diversify this way,” said Sebastien Miglio, Epic’s vice-president for Unreal Engine product development.<\/p>\n
The developer has been gradually adding “the missing functionality to integrate (Unreal Engine) into production pipelines” across different industries.<\/p>\n
Around 600 people work full-time at Epic on the game engine, which boasts a monthly user count of more than one million.<\/p>\n
That makes Unreal Engine a “significant” part of Epic’s business, Miglio said.<\/p>\n
Some of the software’s success can be traced to its unique business model, under which Epic offers game developers the software for free and takes a five-percent cut only if their work tops $1.0 million in revenue.<\/p>\n
In other sectors, access costs around $1,800 per user for companies making more than a million in annual revenue.<\/p>\n
– ‘Standardisation’ –<\/p>\n
Generous access policies have made Unreal Engine a boon to online content creators.<\/p>\n
“We see it kind of as a free tool” that “meets the need to illustrate our videos,” said Sylvain Szewczyk, who uses Unreal to create interview backgrounds and illustrations for tech-focused stories broadcast to his 540,000 YouTube subscribers.<\/p>\n
But the tool’s dominance as the first choice for creators could lead to excessive “standardisation” of 3D content, ICAN’s Roy warned.<\/p>\n
“Games developed with Unreal often have a graphical footprint that’s easy to spot,” he said.<\/p>\n
Epic still has big plans for Unreal Engine, aiming to adapt it for mobile games and add to its capabilities.<\/p>\n
“Today we can make multiplayer games on maps of around eight square kilometres (three square miles) with 100 players,” Epic’s Miglio said.<\/p>\n
“What we’re looking at today is how to put up to 100,000 players on maps of 100, 200 or 300 square kilometres.”<\/p>\n
The tool has not escaped the 2020s AI fever, with the developer also planning to integrate a generative tool for 3D objects or for automatically carrying out certain tasks.<\/p>\n
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