Epic Says AI Will Play A Bigger Role In Unreal Engine 6

At the State of Unreal showcase this week, Epic Games revealed more details on Unreal Engine 6 and how it uses Generative AI to create in-game assets for titles like Fortnite. Epic described the use of GenAI as an “art concepting process” in a new video, detailing how it takes a handcrafted design–using digital tools like Blender and Photoshop–and then uses the technology to block out how it will look as a 3D in-game model.

Epic stressed in the video how GenAI is used to modify an idea that the company’s artists have created themselves, with the caveat that AI can often introduce imperfections that human artists will need to later clean up. “The design is king. AI can generate generic stuff all day, but that’s not what we’re doing here,” one of Epic’s employees explained in the video. “It just skips ahead in the timeline so he [an artist] can focus on honing in on the design and crafting it exactly how he wants it to be.”

This process has become a part of how things are done at Epic, with the company saying that it allows its artists to quickly transform their sketches into 3D designs that they can then further polish. Epic added that it does “continual reviews” before anything is added to the game so that the finished work can meet its “high” standards. Epic is no stranger to AI controversy, however, as the company has dodged questions about Fortnite assets that bear the telltale signs of AI–like having the incorrect number of toes.

In a blog post, Unreal Engine development lead Marcus Wassmer added that Epic is aiming to find a balance between GenAI tools that can help speed up the ideation process while giving users creative control over their workflow. “For UE6, we see LLMs, generative AI models, and tools like Claude and Codex playing a central role in helping you build content faster while maintaining the creative control you need,” Wassmer wrote.

While this sounds promising, not everyone is on board with Epic’s new push into GenAI. Vampire Survivors developer Poncle says that it is currently ‘reviewing’ its planned collaboration, and the overall response to the company’s GenAI announcements has been mixed. Earlier this year, Nvidia showed off its next foray into AI with DLSS 5 and how the upscaling technology can be used to drastically alter how in-game assets and models appear.

The reveal quickly became the butt of a massive joke on the internet, with people referring to it as a “Yassify” filter designed to make video game characters look unnaturally attractive. NvidiaA CEO Jensen Huang moved quickly to defend the technology, but he changed his tune a few days later after facing mounting criticism around Nvidia’s messaging.