Unreal Fest Orlando 2025

When Unreal Engine fires on all cylinders, its rumble echoes from miles away.

It unleashes a Geek-pede, a wild stampede where all bets are off—every nerd’s out for themselves.

When the dust settles in the streets of Orlando, grannies with creaking hips hobble toward their walkers, bracing for the next wave.

To my fellow four-eyes: Let’s join the party!

Unreal Fest Orlando 2025, kicked off at the Orange County Convention Center, marked a significant milestone for Epic Games as it hosted the State of Unreal keynote for the first time at the event. The four-day conference brought together developers, creators, and industry professionals to explore the latest advancements in Unreal Engine and its ecosystem.

With over 190 sessions across ten tracks, the event unveiled cutting-edge tools and features that promise to reshape real-time 3D creation. Here’s a rundown of the key announcements from Unreal Fest 2025.

Unreal Engine 5.6: Powering Next-Gen Worlds

The star of the show was Unreal Engine 5.6, released during the keynote, introducing tools to build large-scale, high-fidelity open worlds that run smoothly at 60 FPS on current-gen hardware like the PlayStation 5. Key features include:

FastGeo Streaming: An experimental plugin for rapid loading of massive static geometry, ensuring seamless performance in expansive environments.
Cinematic Assembly Toolset (CAT): Streamlines cinematic production with templated workflows and compatibility with tools like Take Recorder and Movie Render Queue.
Quick Render (Beta): Enables one-click rendering from the viewport, accelerating cinematic workflows.
In-Engine Animation and Rigging: Enhanced tools like the Mocap Manager and Skeletal Editor allow developers to create and animate characters directly in-engine, reducing reliance on external software.

MetaHuman Creator and Parametric Body System

Epic announced the integration of MetaHuman Creator into Unreal Engine 5.6, paired with the new Parametric Body System. This allows developers to craft highly customizable, production-ready MetaHuman characters with adjustable body types, muscle mass, and adaptive clothing. The system drastically cuts character creation time, making it easier to populate games and films with lifelike digital humans.

The Witcher 4 Tech Demo: A Glimpse of Open-World Excellence

In collaboration with CD Projekt Red (CDPR), Epic showcased a stunning Unreal Engine 5 tech demo for The Witcher 4, set in the never-before-seen region of Kovir. Featuring protagonist Ciri, the demo highlighted advanced features like the Unreal Animation Framework, Nanite Foliage rendering, and Mass AI crowd scaling, all running at 60 FPS on a PlayStation 5. This partnership is pushing Unreal Engine’s open-world capabilities, with tools developed for The Witcher 4 set to benefit all UE developers.

Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN): New Creative Tools

Fortnite creators received exciting updates for UEFN:

Persona Device: Later in 2025, creators will gain tools to build AI-powered NPCs with customizable voices and personalities, enhancing interactive experiences.
Scene Graph (Beta, June 7): Simplifies project organization with a hierarchical structure, enabling rapid creation of complex environments and new gameplay possibilities for platformers and Metroidvanias.
LEGO Brick-by-Brick Building: Launching June 17, this highly requested feature allows precise LEGO-style construction, alongside a new LEGO Bloom Tycoon template for tycoon-style gameplay.

Epic Games Store and Developer Incentives

Epic introduced updates to its ecosystem, including:

Pre-loading for Epic Games Store: Coming to PC and mobile, enhancing user experience.
Self-Publishing on iOS and Android: Set to roll out by late 2025, giving developers more control.
Launch Everywhere with Epic: Starting January 1, 2025, a royalty rate reduction from 5% to 3.5% for eligible Unreal Engine games published on the Epic Games Store, boosting developer revenue.

Industry-Wide Impact and Community Focus

Unreal Fest 2025 also featured sessions on cross-industry applications, from automotive design to virtual production in film and TV. The expo floor showcased tools like Fab, Twinmotion, and RealityCapture, while the Dev Hub offered direct access to Epic developers. Notable speakers, including CDPR’s team and filmmakers like Tim Miller, highlighted Unreal Engine’s role in shaping the future of entertainment.

With Unreal Engine 5.6, enhanced MetaHuman tools, and a focus on creator empowerment, Unreal Fest Orlando 2025 solidified Epic Games’ commitment to driving innovation across industries. Session recordings will be available on the Unreal Engine YouTube channel, ensuring the community can continue to learn and build with these groundbreaking tools.