
Epic Games unveils Unreal Engine 5.5 with Megalights, Nanite upgrades, and lower royalties
Epic Games has launched Unreal Engine 5.5, bringing new features like the notable MegaLights technology, which provides realistic and dynamic area shadows and volumetric fog lighting. This technology was demonstrated on a PlayStation 5, handling over 1,000 shadow-casting lights in real-time. Furthermore, Unreal Engine 5.5 brings improvements for high-end mobile gaming, ensuring advanced features are supported on mobile platforms for AAA-quality experiences.
The update also includes improvements to Nanite, Unreal's virtualized geometry system, which now supports more efficient rendering of Skeletal Meshes. This enhancement is aimed at streamlining workflows for creating character models and complex objects. Additionally, the Path Tracer in UE 5.5 has reached production-ready status, offering high-quality, realistic lighting and reflections.
The company has also announced a reduction in royalties for developers on the Epic Games Store, decreasing from 5% to 3.5% for earnings above $1 million, starting January 1, 2025. This move is part of the 'Launch Everywhere with Epic' initiative, which aims to encourage simultaneous cross-platform releases. Epic also announced the Fab Publishing Portal, which will unify the Unreal Engine Marketplace, Sketchfab Store, ArtStation Marketplace, and Quixel Suite under a single platform with an 88/12 revenue split, becoming fully operational by mid-October 2024.

Not sure what it would take to ever topple Steam as the "top dog," but it's nice to see more money in developer pockets. Steam/Valve has always done a great job, but they do want quite a large chunk of profits. Cheers to the growth of Epic Games!