Welcome to Unreal Engine 5 Early Access #
Unreal Engine 5 is the next evolution of Unreal Engine, improved for next-generation games, real-time visualization, and interactive experiences.
It enables creators across industries to produce next-generation real-time 3D content with greater freedom and flexibility.
UE5 offers the first opportunity to use these innovative tools for next-generation game development.
UE5 Early Access is aimed at game developers eager to explore what comes next. The Unreal Engine team is excited to share an early look at these features.
Early Access is not production-ready. Use it to test features, explore capabilities, and prototype future games. This release emphasizes new capabilities while optimization and platform-support work continues.
Warning: We do not recommend Unreal Engine Early Access for production work.
Is Unreal Engine 5 Early Access Right for You? #
Consider trying it if most or all of the following apply:
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You already have substantial UE4 experience.
Experienced UE4 users should transfer their workflows relatively easily. UE5 Early Access includes Valley of the Ancient , a practical gameplay sample demonstrating new features. Outside this project, learning material is limited compared with UE4's extensive resources. Features and workflows will keep changing, so complete newcomers are advised to learn UE4 until UE5 becomes production-ready.
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You develop games or similar interactive experiences.
UE5 Early Access puts new technology in studios' hands quickly for next-generation prototypes. Its features have not yet been extensively validated with customers for other workflows.
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Your project is planned for late 2022 or later.
Early Access introduces features and workflows long before production use so teams can prepare. For projects releasing in 2021 or early 2022, we strongly recommend UE4's established foundation.
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You can accept rough edges.
UE5 Early Access is a snapshot of rapidly changing development. Significant performance, stability, and refinement work remains. This may be acceptable while learning for future projects, but relying on new features can cause unexpected disruption. Help improve them by reporting your experiences .
If most or all of these statements do not apply—for example, you are new to Unreal, have a short-term project, or need production stability—you can experiment with Early Access, but we recommend continuing project work in UE4 for now.
About the UE5 Early Access Documentation #
These materials introduce the Early Access release and provide enough detail about major features to try them.
The main reference for general Unreal Engine information and established features remains UE4 documentation .
Note: Switch between UE4 and UE5 documentation using the drop-down at the top left.
Getting Unreal Engine 5 Early Access #
There are two main options:
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Download precompiled binaries from the Epic Games Launcher.
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Get source code from GitHub.
Users already authorized for Epic Games Perforce repositories can also obtain source there.
Getting UE5 Early Access from the Epic Games Launcher #
The Launcher is the simplest way to get UE5 Early Access.
- Choose it for ready-to-use precompiled binaries.
- Do not expect regular major updates. Epic may release hotfixes or other updates, but substantial expansion of Early Access features is not planned before the production release.
To download through the Launcher:
- Download and install Epic Games Launcher if needed.
- Run the Launcher and sign in with your Epic account.
- Select Unreal Engine from the right-hand menu.
- Find the tab Unreal Engine 5 Early Access.
- Follow the Download Early Access .
Getting UE5 Early Access from GitHub #
Download UE5 Early Access source code from GitHub.
- Choose this to modify engine source or access the latest development commits as UE5 approaches production.
- You must compile the engine yourself.
GitHub workflows are the same as for 4.x releases. See the latest UE4 documentation .
For Early Access, sync one of these branches:
- ue5-early-access – Contains the source used for the Launcher's binaries. Choose it for the stable, QA-tested Early Access feature set. Fixes and improvements may or may not be added later.
- ue5-main – The main UE5 development trunk, containing the latest Epic commits toward production. It carries greater risk of instability and workflow disruption.
Building UE5 Early Access from source follows UE4's process. See the latest UE4 documentation . Visual Studio 2015 and 2017 are unsupported; use Visual Studio 2019 version 16.4 or later.
Getting UE5 Early Access from Perforce #
Users already authorized for Epic Games Perforce repositories can access these streams:
- //UE5/Release-5.0- Early Access – Contains the source used for the Launcher's binaries. Choose it for the stable, QA-tested Early Access feature set. Fixes and improvements may or may not be added later.
- // UE5 / Main – The main UE5 development stream with the latest Epic commits toward production. It carries greater risk of instability and disruption.
Building UE5 Early Access from source follows UE4's process. See the latest UE4 documentation . Visual Studio 2015 and 2017 are unsupported; use Visual Studio 2019 version 16.4 or later.
Compatibility #
UE5 Early Access is a separate development path alongside the forthcoming UE4 4.27. It should support already released 4.x versions, but compatibility with future 4.x versions is not guaranteed.
General principles:
- Projects from UE4 4.26 or earlier should upgrade to UE5 Early Access. Existing content should work relatively smoothly, subject to the requirements and deprecations in the Migration Guide .
- Do not expect content created in or upgraded to UE4 4.27 to work in UE5 Early Access.
- The final UE5 5.0 production release will support content from UE4 4.27 and UE5 Early Access.
- Do not expect to move UE5 projects or content back to any UE4 version.
Platforms and Devices #
UE5 Early Access supports UE4's target platforms and devices, with these exceptions:
- 32-bit platform support is removed.
- Apple Silicon is supported natively at runtime. Unreal Editor remains an Intel binary translated through Rosetta 2.
- Not every new feature supports every platform. Lumen and Nanite currently do not support mobile or last-generation consoles and require NVIDIA or AMD GPUs on PC. Platform and GPU support may change before production. For limitations, see Release Notes and individual feature documentation. For supported systems and SDK versions, see Platform SDK Upgrades in the release notes.
Development Hardware Requirements #
Basic UE5 Early Access hardware requirements are unchanged from UE4. See the latest UE4 documentation .
Some new features require more capable hardware for the best results.
For Nanite and Lumen, we currently recommend an equivalent of NVIDIA GTX 1080 or AMD Vega 64 or better . We also recommend the latest GPU drivers.
Performance, quality, and configuration testing are ongoing. Recommendations may change during Early Access and for the final production release.
Giving Feedback and Getting Help #
Early Access starts a conversation about new features and future directions. Early feedback helps the Unreal Engine team improve the engine.
Share both positive and negative experiences.
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Discuss features, design, and future plans in our community forum .
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Report definite bugs through our public issue-reporting tool .
Translated source: https://docs.unrealengine.com/5.0/en-US/Welcome/
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