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Today's Topics:
1. Unreal Engine becoming go-to tool for 3D projects, games, TV
news, animations and films (Stephen Loosley)
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Message: 1
Date: Tue, 03 Mar 2026 19:51:26 +1030
From: Stephen Loosley <[email protected]>
To: "link" <[email protected]>
Subject: [LINK] Unreal Engine becoming go-to tool for 3D projects,
games, TV news, animations and films
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
What do Black Myth: Wukong and Star Wars? The Mandalorian have in common?
Both use Epic Games? Unreal Engine, which is expanding beyond video games into
TV, film, architectural projects and even car navigation
Agence France-Presse Published: 3:15pm, 3 Mar 2026
https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3345082/what-do-black-myth-wukong-and-star-wars-mandalorian-have-common
With its use more commonly associated with hugely popular video games such as
Fortnite and Batman Arkham City, the powerful Unreal Engine is becoming a go-to
tool for 3D projects beyond the video games industry, from TV news graphics to
acclaimed animated series and films.
Created for the 1998 first-person shooter game Unreal by programmer Tim Sweeney
? who founded the game?s development company and is now CEO of what it has
become: Fortnite developer Epic Games, the engine was soon made available for
other companies.
It was a rare move in an industry in which most studios developed their own
engines ? an expansive term for the software controlling the main
characteristics of a game world, such as graphics, physics simulation and sound.
In recent years, the power and ease of use of the Unreal Engine?s latest
version have seen it integrated into hit game titles including Black Myth:
Wukong and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.
A screenshot from Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Photo: Kepler Interactive
A screenshot from Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Photo: Kepler Interactive
Tomb Raider star Lara Croft will be crafted in the Unreal Engine in her
upcoming adventures too, says Scot Amos, head of studio at developer Crystal
Dynamics, which is currently working on two new Tomb Raider games.
Using Unreal ?gives us access to a broad swathe? of developers, Amos says,
calling it ?a ubiquitous tool that so many people will use and get?.
The off-the-shelf solution saves on time and costs as ?we don?t have to keep
teaching people how to use a proprietary tech? developed in-house, Amos adds.
More than a quarter (28 per cent) of games released for PCs in 2024 were built
using Unreal Engine, according to specialist data firm Sensor Tower.
?It?s become truly indispensable in the industry,? says Brice Roy, director of
France?s Institute for Digital Creation and Animation (ICAN), a training school
with sites in several cities.
?The engine is preconfigured, which is what makes it so attractive: as soon as
you create a rough build, it looks really beautiful, it works right away.?
Epic Games? ambition for Unreal Engine is not limited to underpinning large
swathes of the game industry.
A first technical demonstration of its real-time modelling power for high-end
carmaker McLaren drew attention from other sectors too.
The engine has since been applied to architectural projects, onboard navigation
for cars, and reconstructions in television news reports.
Film and TV have also got in on the action, with the engine deployed in Star
Wars series The Mandalorian and the Oscar-winning short film War is Over.
?We planned to diversify this way,? says Sebastien Miglio, Epic?s
vice-president for Unreal Engine product development.
Epic has been gradually adding ?the missing functionality to integrate [Unreal
Engine] into production pipelines? across different industries, he adds.
[A still from The Mandalorian Season 3. Photo: Disney+]
Around 600 people work full-time at Epic on the game engine, which boasts a
monthly user count of more than 1 million developers. That makes the engine a
?significant? part of Epic?s business, Miglio says.
Some of the software?s success can be traced to its unique business model,
under which Epic offers game developers the software for free and takes a 5 per
cent cut only if their work tops US$1 million in revenue.
In other sectors, access costs around US$1,800 per user for companies making
more than US$1 million in annual revenue.
Those access policies have made Unreal Engine a boon to online content creators.
?We see it kind of as a free tool [that] meets the need to illustrate our
videos,? says YouTuber Sylvain Szewczyk, who uses the engine to create
interview backgrounds and illustrations for tech-focused stories broadcast to
his 540,000 subscribers.
But the tool?s dominance as the first choice for creators could lead to
excessive ?standardisation? of 3D content, ICAN?s Roy warns.
?Games developed with Unreal often have a graphical footprint that?s easy to
spot,? he says.
Epic still has big plans for its engine, aiming to adapt it for mobile games
and add to its capabilities.
?Today we can make multiplayer games on maps of around eight sq km [three
square miles] with 100 players,? Miglio says. ?What we?re looking at today is
how to put up to 100,000 players on maps of 100, 200 or 300 sq km.?
The tool has not escaped the 2020s AI fever, with the developer also planning
to integrate a generative tool for 3D objects or for automatically carrying out
certain tasks.
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End of Link Digest, Vol 400, Issue 2
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