Unreal Engine 5 edges closer to full release

eurogamer.net:

Unreal Engine 5 is now in Preview.

While not a production-ready release of the game engine, Preview allows developers to test out the new features of Unreal Engine 5. In addition, Epic can test for further bugs or glitches before the final release.

Unreal Engine 5 has already been available in Early Access, resulting in Epic's own Fortnite being moved to the new engine, as well as the impressive tech demo The Matrix Awakens: An Unreal Engine 5 Experience.

Epic give full details of the Preview version in this blog post.

Any releases on this Preview version of the engine will likely have instabilities and other issues, so developers are urged not to use this for production. Instead, it's mainly to get to grips with new tools.

That includes UE5's new virtualised geometry system Nanite that fills worlds with geometric detail, and dynamic lighting system Lumen.

While a release date for the final version of UE5 is unknown, we're edging closer to a full production version of the engine.

Digital Foundry had some impressions of the engine back last year.