Remember the gorgeous Electric Dreams demo that Epic used to show off Unreal Engine 5.2 during GDC 2023's State of Unreal presentation? It's now available as a Sample Project that anyone can download to check out features like the Procedural Content Generation framework and Substrate.
The former takes center stage in Epic's Electric Dreams Sample Project overview.
The Electric Dreams Environment Sample Project demonstrates how the PCG framework can be used to build tools, define rules, and expose parameters to populate large scenes with UE assets of your choice, making the process of large world creation fast, interactive, and efficient.
Built with interactivity in mind, this scalable framework makes worldbuilding more efficient while enabling you to maintain artistic control.
- Iterate faster, with immediate feedback from the live-editing tools
- Create new gameplay opportunities with the runtime component
- Easily customize, share, and reuse your procedural content at different complexity levels
- Build your own tools using the extensibility features
- Leverage integration with other Unreal Engine 5.2 features, such as Geometry Scripting
Within the PCG graph, you can get data from Actors and even output from other graphs and use them to construct your graph and regenerate it when something changes. For example, you can:
- Construct a ground surface based on the outline shape of a neighboring embankment and conform it to additional assets that overlap its surface
- Position a fallen tree according to its surroundings
- Trigger landslides when certain conditions are met
You can also apply debug visuals to any node and customize them to your requirements.
The PCG framework can be used in combination with Quixel's vast library of assets. By the way, all the assets available with the Electric Dreams Sample Project can be freely used on commercial or non-commercial projects.
Electric Dreams also allows users to check out the new Substrate way to author materials, which is especially useful for layered looks. Do note that both Substrate and the Procedural Content Generation framework are considered Experimental features, which means Epic does not recommend using them in live projects yet. On the other hand, no such warnings apply for Lumen and Nanite, the signature features of Unreal Engine 5 that received performance and quality optimizations in version 5.2, or Soundscape, a system to procedurally generated sounds on the fly.
Users can already check out the official Electric Dreams Sample Project documentation here. Epic will discuss it and the Procedural Content Generation framework added to Unreal Engine 5.2 in greater detail on the next Inside Unreal live stream, scheduled for June 22 at 2 PM Eastern Time.
Today, Epic also announced that the RealityScan app is finally available on Android. Originally released last year on iOS, it allows users to scan any real-life objects and get high-fidelity 3D models that can then be exported into Sketchfab and then used in Unreal Engine or TwinMotion.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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