Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 4.17 update is here, and it’s got some great new features for VR and AR lovers.
Our personal favorite addition is the Spectator Screen for PC VR apps, which reminds us a little of the social screen feature seen on PlayStation VR. It allows people watching others play in VR to see not only what the VR user sees on a 2D display, but also interact within an experience where appropriate. Check it out in action in this video for Ghost Paint.
Sticking with VR, there are new VR mode camera previews. Put a virtual camera in place and bring up a screen to showcase what it captures, then move it around the world. A host of other VR fixes are also added in the update.
Perhaps more importantly, the update also adds experimental support for Apple’s new ARKit, the AR platform set to be introduced in the upcoming release of iOS11. Unreal Engine was powering the Wingnut AR demo we saw during ARKit’s reveal earlier this year, but now all Unreal developers can get to grips with it. We’re looking forward to seeing what developers do with the platform.
