14 DAY TRIAL // Epic Games released Unreal Engine 4 version 4.2, adding a host of new features and improvements, the most notable of which being Project Morpheus support for the PC and PlayStation 4.
While the previous update Xbox One and PlayStation 4 support, the newest update brings something for fans of the good old PC platform, in the form of another addition to the list of virtual reality headsets supported.
The move is meant to primarily assist developers in the game creation process, especially when it comes to working on cross-platform titles.
Moving on, the biggest next feature added to Unreal Engine 4 in the 4.2 update is vehicles, along with a sample game which the developers can use to test them out.
“Vehicles are now fully supported in Unreal Engine! This sample game features an off-road vehicle and a looping track within a desert setting. Race across sand dunes, rocky cliffs and ancient ruins, and try to beat your best time,” the patch notes on the Unreal Engine blog read.
Support for 4WD, FWD and RWD drive trains is offered right out of the box, and although the default model assumes that 4 wheels are present, the engine is scalable with any number, and as many gears as are desired, with both manual and semi-automatic transmission.
Among the other features introduces in the 4.2 update are better camera animation system, as well as User Defined Structures for blueprints.
“Conceptually, a CameraAnim is simply an animation that can be layered onto the in-game camera. You can animate the camera position and rotation, FOV, and post process settings,” the patch notes read.
The camera controls are described as being similar to the CameraAnims from Unreal Engine 3, and the User Defined Structures for blueprints are a brand new asset to the engine, allowing developers to create them in the Content Browser and edited using the standalone editing tool.
Once done editing, developers can simply create a new variable of the new User Defined Structure type in the blueprints. Just like any other structure, the custom ones will have Make and Break nodes, and will behave like the native ones.
The announcement of the updated version also comes with a slew of introductory videos, detailing each newly introduced feature, as well as extensive documentation regarding setting up vehicles and their art content in Unreal Engine 4.
If you’re interested in seeing the extensive 4.2 patch notes for yourself, you can find them on the Unreal Engine blog.