Unreal Engine 5.6 received the largest animation editor update in the engine’s history. The Motion Trails, Tween Tools, and Curve Editor have been significantly revamped, making it easier to create and edit animations directly within the editor. The update also adds the ability to sculpt morph targets right inside Unreal Editor, along with integrated physics in Control Rig, enabling more realistic character movements without the need for additional simulations.

A new module, Mocap Manager, has been introduced — a full-featured solution for capturing and managing motion capture data directly within the Unreal Editor. This significantly reduces the time needed to integrate captured motion into gameplay or animation scenes.

The MetaHuman Creator tool is now integrated directly into Unreal Engine, simplifying the creation of photorealistic digital humans and facial animation. Additionally, global changes have been made to the character creation system, with improved templates and enhanced customization options. Notably, the Lumen global illumination system received optimizations for the Hardware Ray Tracing (HWRT) mode, improving stability and performance—especially on consoles and high-end PCs—to better support 60 frames per second gameplay.

Unreal Engine 5.6 is available for Windows 10, macOS 14, and Linux (RHEL/Rocky 8) and newer versions of these operating systems. The engine is free to use for projects earning up to one million dollars per year. Large studios can purchase a subscription for $1,850 per year per seat, which also includes Twinmotion and RealityCapture. For games, there is a 5% royalty on revenues exceeding the first million dollars.

This update makes Unreal Engine 5.6 not only a powerful tool for game designers but also an increasingly attractive platform for artists, animators, and virtual content developers.