009: Quixel Drama, Megalights and Easy Rain
This week we have a solo developed horror game, Unreal Engine's 5.5 release and Rider goes free.
Welcome back. It has been a little while since we reported from the Outpost. We are now back every Saturday with a few new changes.
We have moved to UnrealOutpost.com - After a bit of negotiation we have secured our forever home, and we hope it makes it easier to find us.
The Unreal Outpost podcast launches next week - Alongside our new site we are launching a podcast for Unreal Engine creators bringing you the most interesting stories from behind the engine. The podcast launches with the tenth issue of the newsletter. If you want to subscribe so you get the podcast the minute it releases you can below.
Unreal Outpost is now on BlueSky - As many of you have, we have also moved over to Bluesky. We will be maintaining Starter Packs of the creators we highlight, taking submissions for the weekly issues, and keeping you up to date with the latest news.
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The Latest
Quixel Bridge is back.. for now
With the launch of Fab.com came some difficulties in Megascans land. Prior to Fab's existence there was a rush to use browser hacks to download the free catalogue before it was switched off. Epic then made the scans available through Fab, however Fab's integration with Unreal Engine made the scans unwieldily to work with, after Bridge was removed as an automatic download. Quixel/Epic have now made Bridge available again through the end of the year hopefully giving creators time to migrate to a new solution.
Yasir1986
Unreal Engine 5.5 releases
Unreal Engine 5.5 was released and came with a set of features that would usually be reserved for a major release. Megalights, a new set of animation tools and more optimized mobile game development lead the offerings here. Check out the latest reel and we'll be sure to follow up with any tutorials that get to grips with these features.
Toolbox
Easy Rain
William Faucher continues his precipitation based plugins for Unreal introducing EasyRain to his collection of EasyFog and EasySnow. If you are looking to channel your inner Spielberg you can't go wrong here. The plugin offers a quick path to beautiful rain effects, easy controls and great performance for both game use and filmmaking.
Rider is now free
One that flew under the radar. Jetbrains released Rider free for non-commercial use. Rider offers a more comfortable experience for developers over Visual Studio, and has the benefit of being truly cross platform for Linux and Mac workstations. If you have been on the fence or hesitant about the subscription, now might be the time to give Rider a go.
Ekaterina Ryabukha
Pinboard
Threshold - A solo developed horror game from Julien Eveillé
Described as a short atmospheric horror game developed alongside Julien's AAA job, this solo project is best going into blind. The game was developed over the course of 1.5 years, and utilizes an interesting stylized art style.
Time At The Pool by Taylor Oliveira
Taylor has put together very well documented modular environment with impressive lighting and problem solving. For a behind the scenes look, video fly throughs and breakdowns of his assets check out his Artstation.
That’s it from the outpost this week, we’ll be back with more from the horizon next weekend.
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