Epic Games has released a realistic, comprehensive Unreal Engine 4 sample along with accompanying documentation to demonstrate the use of high-quality character shader techniques, similar to those used for characters in Paragon, Epic's MOBA for PC and PS4.

Creating authentic, believable characters is a fundamental goal for many of today’s 3D artists and game developers. For the past couple of years, Epic has been bringing new rendering features to UE4 that improves shading for skin, eyes, hair and other character attributes.

To help the community get the most out of these features, we are releasing the Photorealistic Character sample, now available for use in any Unreal Engine 4 project, complete with documentation designed to guide developers through the creation process.

The purpose of sharing this content is to empower anyone to learn from, explore and deconstruct Epic’s professionally created materials and models. To get started with this showcase, open the Epic Games launcher and download the project from the Learn tab. When you open it, press Play In Editor to see a cinematic pan around the asset.

The documentation released in association with the Photorealistic Character sample, which was created using OTOY facial scanning, delivers insight into the skin, hair and eye shading techniques that provide the ability to achieve photoreal characters in Unreal Engine.

New to Unreal? Now’s a great time to dive in! Download Unreal Engine 4 for free and get started here.