Epic Games has announced on their blog that they decided to provide Unreal Engine 4 for free to all people, without any limitations of its features.

There is something you will need to keep in mind if you plan on using the Unreal Engine 4 for commercial reasons. In Epic Games’s blog post is clearly states that: “When you ship a game or application, you pay a 5% royalty on gross revenue after the first $3,000 per product, per quarter.”

Depending on your needs this might be a deal breaker.

The current latest version for Unreal Engine 4 is version 4.7. This version comes with various new features, such as:

• Realistic Foliage Lighting
• Foliage Rendering for Large Worlds
• In-World Component Editing
• Placeable Empty Actors
• Blueprintable Components
• Automatic Asset Importing
• Blueprint Editor UI
• HTML5 and WebGL Support (Windows Only)
• OpenEXR: High Dynamic Range Textures
• Android Development on Mac
• Virtual Reality Support
• Leap Motion Plugin *Beta*
• Morph Target Exaggeration
• Animation Editing System
• Instant Bone Controller Preview
• Creating Animations from Physics
• Git Source Control Plugin (Beta!)
• AI Perception System: Blueprint Scripting

and a lot more ! For a more detailed explanation of the features, visit https://www.unrealengine.com/blog/unreal-engine-47-released

Unreal Engine 4 Recommended System Specifications

• Windows 7 64-bit or a Mac with Mac OS X 10.9.2 or later
• 8 GB RAM
• Quad-core Intel or AMD processor
• DX11 compatible video card

Unreal Engine 4 will run on hardware below what is shown above but you might experience issues with the performance.

If you would like to download Unreal Engine 4 please visit unrealengine.com and click the link on the top right where it says “Get Unreal”. Registration is required.