Unreal Engine 4.8 adds more VR support, network replays and lots of grass

Epic Games has released the latest version – 4.8 – of its widely used Unreal Engine.

Highlights in the latest point release include updated support for virtual reality platforms, including Oculus Rift, Gear VR, Project Morpheus, Leap Motion and Valve’s Vive VR, as well as the arrival of plugins within the Unreal Marketplace, starting with Allegorithmic’s texture-centric Substance tools.

The team has also built on its open world tools, with an optimised Grass System and an experimental preview of the procedural foliage system used to paint foliage across the Kite demo shown at GDC 2015.

There have been updates to UE4’s post-processing enhancements and tools, including a major increase in accuracy of the motion blur and physically-based depth of field. UE4.8 also introduces “scrubbable” network replays, with rewind support and live-time scrubbing.

There are 189 community-suggested changes and countless more new features, making Unreal Engine 4.8 the largest update so far. You can read through the full list at the release notes page.