Highlights from the Unreal Fest Stockholm opening session
It’s been a busy year for Unreal Fest, with events across the globe that have brought together thousands of talented developers and partners.
We kicked off 2025’s Unreal Fest events in Orlando, launching Unreal Engine 5.6, showing off The Witcher 4 Unreal Engine 5 Tech Demo with CD PROJEKT RED, and covering all the updates to our tools during State of Unreal that help you build smarter and faster.
Following hugely successful shows in Bali, Shanghai, and Seoul, Unreal Fest Stockholm’s opening session previewed Unreal Engine 5.7, showcased new features for Fortnite developers, and announced expanded capabilities for the Epic Developer Assistant. Check out the YouTube recording and keep reading for more details.
We kicked off 2025’s Unreal Fest events in Orlando, launching Unreal Engine 5.6, showing off The Witcher 4 Unreal Engine 5 Tech Demo with CD PROJEKT RED, and covering all the updates to our tools during State of Unreal that help you build smarter and faster.
Following hugely successful shows in Bali, Shanghai, and Seoul, Unreal Fest Stockholm’s opening session previewed Unreal Engine 5.7, showcased new features for Fortnite developers, and announced expanded capabilities for the Epic Developer Assistant. Check out the YouTube recording and keep reading for more details.
The Unreal Engine 5.7 Preview is out
The UE 5.7 Preview is now available for download from the Epic Games launcher! This new release will accelerate the work we did in 5.6 to unlock performance so you can create bigger and better worlds that run smoothly on every platform.
Nanite Foliage, shipping in 5.7 as Experimental, enables you to render and animate dense, high-detail foliage. Nanite Assemblies provide building blocks to efficiently manage asset variations, reducing storage, memory, and rendering cost. With Nanite Voxel rendering—used when trees are in the distance—there are no cross fades, no pops, and no need to author LODs. We’ve also improved support for broadleaf trees.
Starting with 5.7, you can add vegetation to scenes by importing them from external DCCs through USD—or use the new Procedural Vegetation Editor, shipping as Experimental, along with new Quixel assets called Megaplants that will be available on Fab at launch.
UE 5.7 brings significant improvements to MegaLights, now in Beta, with upgraded lighting quality and stability. We’ve added support for directional lights, hair grooms, translucency lighting, and Niagara particle lights. You can use the new performance tuning controls to manage resolution scale and update rate.
Substrate is production-ready in 5.7 and is enabled by default for new projects. It now supports all the features of legacy materials, on all UE5 target platforms, at performance parity. And in high-end use cases, it offers brand new capabilities such as materials with complex layered topology. We’ll also release a new Substrate material pack to help you get started.
The Procedural Content Generation (PCG) framework also graduates to production-ready in 5.7. We’ve continued optimizing GPU generation and game thread performance, and PCG is now almost twice as fast as it was in 5.5. We’ve also focused on usability and customization. With the new Editor Mode, using PCG tools in-editor becomes much easier and can be extended to fit your specific needs.
Additional updates shipping in 5.7 include improvements to media and entertainment workflows like performance capture, compositing, and Motion Design, plus you’ll see a major quality-of-life update for automotive visualization now that Substrate is production-ready.
Starting with 5.7, you can add vegetation to scenes by importing them from external DCCs through USD—or use the new Procedural Vegetation Editor, shipping as Experimental, along with new Quixel assets called Megaplants that will be available on Fab at launch.
UE 5.7 brings significant improvements to MegaLights, now in Beta, with upgraded lighting quality and stability. We’ve added support for directional lights, hair grooms, translucency lighting, and Niagara particle lights. You can use the new performance tuning controls to manage resolution scale and update rate.
Substrate is production-ready in 5.7 and is enabled by default for new projects. It now supports all the features of legacy materials, on all UE5 target platforms, at performance parity. And in high-end use cases, it offers brand new capabilities such as materials with complex layered topology. We’ll also release a new Substrate material pack to help you get started.
The Procedural Content Generation (PCG) framework also graduates to production-ready in 5.7. We’ve continued optimizing GPU generation and game thread performance, and PCG is now almost twice as fast as it was in 5.5. We’ve also focused on usability and customization. With the new Editor Mode, using PCG tools in-editor becomes much easier and can be extended to fit your specific needs.
Additional updates shipping in 5.7 include improvements to media and entertainment workflows like performance capture, compositing, and Motion Design, plus you’ll see a major quality-of-life update for automotive visualization now that Substrate is production-ready.
The Epic Developer Assistant comes to Unreal Engine
Earlier this year, we launched the AI-powered Epic Developer Assistant on the web to help Fortnite creators get quick answers to technical questions and to generate working Verse code for their games.
Now you can access the Unreal Engine version of the Epic Developer Assistant on the Epic Developer Community. When 5.7 launches it will come directly into the editor for both UE and UEFN as an experimental conversational help assistant panel that puts clear, in-context guidance, explanations, and code generation - whether it’s C++ for UE or Verse for UEFN - right where you need it.
This is a first step on a much longer journey to explore how AI-assisted workflows can empower you to do even more amazing things with Unreal.
Major updates to the Fortnite Ecosystem
We recently announced that Fortnite developers will soon be able to sell items directly from their Fortnite islands. In addition to in-game item sales, we are updating the engagement payout formula to better reward creators for bringing in new or reengaging lapsed players in Fortnite. We’re also adding a prominent Sponsored Row in Discover, and we announced the upcoming Fortnite Creator Communities. Read all about the new creator ecosystem updates coming later this year.
We are also expanding UEFN’s feature set to provide even more options when it comes to building games and experiences in Fortnite. Here are some of the key features on the horizon:
- Persona device (Experimental): bring AI-driven experiences to islands through LLM-powered NPCs, opening the door to dynamic storytelling and interaction, and changing how players can engage with the world and its characters. During the experimental phase, creators can test this feature ahead of the public beta, when publishing will be made available.
- Custom items and inventories (Experimental): arriving in 37.40 this week, this feature will enable you to modify, customize, or completely replace the default inventory you start out with in Fortnite islands. You can design original items with unique properties and build gameplay systems centered around inventory interactions.
- General physics: launching in Beta in 37.40, General Physics enables realistic, physics-based interactions – ranging from character movement to dynamic props – to support sports games, puzzles, and gameplay reliant on physical simulation.
For more info on the features shipping to Fortnite developers, check out our roadmap.
Epic Online Services Multi-Platform Social Overlay coming soon
The world’s biggest games are social and multi-platform, and we see this as the future of gaming, which is why Epic Online Services give you all the features you need to reach the Epic Account System’s audience of nearly a billion users, as well as the flexibility to use standalone game services such as Crossplay, Achievements, Multiplayer services and more.
Early next year, the Epic social overlay is coming to all platforms – mobile, PC, and console – and we will provide the full social UI so that you will be able to connect friends across platforms, devices and games.
We also provide voice chat moderation through the social overlay and safety features you can enable in your own games through Kids Web Services, our platform for parental consent and verification. It’s home to the AgeGraph (formally the ParentGraph), the world’s largest and fastest-growing network of pre-verified adults, including many parents and guardians.
KWS AgeGraph has more than 29 million verified adults
The purpose of the AgeGraph is to improve the experience for parents as they navigate digital experiences with their children, and we announced that the KWS AgeGraph is just about to cross a major milestone - 30 million verified adults!
As the AgeGraph grows, more adults will get faster, more convenient verification; younger audiences will get access to age-appropriate content with less friction; and developers will benefit from greatly improved completion rates across all types of digital platforms and experiences.
Catch up on the rest of Unreal Fest Stockholm
If you couldn’t make it to Sweden in person for Unreal Fest Stockholm, don’t worry! We have recorded most of the sessions and will be posting them on our YouTube channel.
Keep an eye on the Unreal Fest Stockholm page for more details.