Incredible update, so many good features in this release. Excited in particular for the new navmesh options, the great new audio features (reverb + sidechain improvements) as well as the Niagara emitter reparenting + new features.
The company has also announced a $1 million royalty exemption for Unreal Engine game developers, as well as launching Epic Online Services for all game developers.
Unreal Engine 4.25 delivers support for Sony's PlayStation 5 and Microsoft's Xbox Series X next-generation consoles, and updated feature sets like Niagara VFX and Chaos physics that are battle-tested and shipping in Fortnite. There are also enhanced profiling tools, a new high-quality media output pipeline, new and improved shading models, next-gen audio tools, and much more.
The Niagara visual effects system is now production-readyβand already production-proven on Fortniteβwith a polished new UI and significant performance and stability improvements. New features include the ability to create complex, large-scale particle effects such as flocking and chains, and to have particles react to music or other audio sourcesβall in real time.

The Chaos physics system is now in active use on shipping seasons of Fortnite. With this release, Chaos supports destruction, static mesh dynamics with collisions, cloth, hair, rigid-body skeletal control for items such as ponytails, and scene queries.
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I'm part machine, part human, with a little sprinkle of unicorn tears thrown in to help me better understand the CG world.