UNREAL FEST WEST 2019

This is a large-scale official study event hosted by Epic Games Japan. It has been held annually in the Kanto and Kansai regions since 2014, when Unreal Engine 4 was made publicly available. *From the official website

Before Attending

I had applied for 2018 as well, but another commitment came up on the day, so I couldn’t go. This was my first time attending.

Being a large-scale study event, I wondered how many people would come, but seeing the final expected attendance number was over 600 people made me realize it truly was large-scale.

When deciding whether to bring my laptop, I hesitated because it’s heavy and wouldn’t last the whole day without power, so I decided against it.

However, the venue was a hall-like place at Kyoto Computer Gakuin, and there were tables and power outlets at the seats, so it seemed usable even if I had brought it.

In the end, during the lectures, I only used Twitter and took notes, so the laptop wasn’t necessary.

From Arrival to Start

I had read on the official website beforehand that there would be an after-party following the fest, and thinking it sounded interesting, I definitely wanted to attend.

To participate, it was necessary to buy a ticket on the day.

Seeing information that the tickets were limited in number, I thought it best to arrive early and got there around 9:30 AM, 30 minutes before registration started at 10:00 AM.

When I arrived, there was already a queue of about 20 to 30 people. After that, the line kept growing longer, indicating its popularity.

At 10:00 AM, registration began, and I entered. At the reception, I showed the screen of the Peatix app on my smartphone to complete registration. I received a tote bag as a visitor gift. Despite being a free gift, this bag is well-made and cool.

After completing registration, I went to the merchandise corner next door.

I saw the pink band, which was the ticket for the after-party, so it seemed I made it in time.

Paid 5000 yen and successfully got it.

#ue4fest pic.twitter.com/s7sEBeWAq3 — ayuma (@ayuma_x) April 20, 2019

However, I saw the words “Limited to 25” at the sales counter, and thought, “Eh, 600 people are coming, but there are only 25? It’s really rare. If I had come a little later, it would definitely have been sold out…”

Also, I personally wanted to buy stickers or T-shirts, but this time only the after-party tickets were sold, which was a bit disappointing.

I wanted to put a UE4 sticker on my laptop…

There were also company exhibits around the reception area, and I found something extremely interesting among them, so I went to see it right after completing registration. I will write a separate article about this.

After looking around the other exhibits a bit, I went to the venue and waited for the start.

1) Unreal Engine Roadmap

The first talk was by Axel from Epic. I heard many interesting stories about the latest features of UE4.

It started in French, which was a bit surprising. After that, the explanation was in fluent Japanese and easy to understand.

Below are the contents that caught my interest.

Epic Online Services

Epic Online Services | Services

They will release an SDK that provides online service functionality.

Of course for UE4, but I was surprised that they would also release it for Unity!

Since there’s also a C API, it seems possible to support various platforms if you try.

I was moved by the words, “It’s free. There are no hidden catches.”

Quixel Movie

I was shown an incredibly beautiful movie made using UE4. It truly looked like live-action, and I couldn’t hide my surprise that it was real-time rendering.

Live Coding

A feature included since 4.22, it allows C++ changes to be reflected faster than the previous hot reload. Personally, I thought the script reflection time was an area where UE4 lagged behind Unity, so this is a very welcome feature.

Now I can use C++ with less stress from waiting times!!!

Ray Tracing

There was also an explanation and demo of the current highlight, real-time ray tracing. The mirror reflections really change when enabled. With the latest drivers, it seems usable even on GTX 1060 and above, which is great for trying it out.

Researching later, I found out the movie above was made with a single 2080 Ti, which made me feel its awesomeness even more.

Unreal Insights

Information announced for the first time at this Unreal Fest. A high-performance tracing framework that is said to make performance and crash analysis easier. Even now, load confirmation etc. can be done with various commands, but I’m looking forward to seeing how things change when this is introduced.

Chaos

A new physics destruction system apparently testable in the next version, 4.23. Watching the footage of buildings being destroyed, the reality was incredible, as if real objects were being destroyed. Making a game using this seems like it would be exhilarating!!

2) What I Learned from Listing a Shrine Asset on the UE4 Marketplace

Shinto Shrine：Motonak：Environments - UE4 Marketplace

A lecture by background artist Mr. Nakamura.

Since the content was non-public, I won’t write details, but I heard interesting stories about the Marketplace.

I also listed one item recently and was thinking of listing another next, so it was very helpful.

3) Hearing from the Students Who Became Number One in Japan: How to Conquer the Japan Game Awards

A panel discussion with the team members who won the Grand Prize in the “Japan Game Awards 2018 Amateur Division”.

It was the first time I saw footage of the game, but even at a glance, the quality was very high, and I actually wanted to try playing it.

Listening to their stories, it strongly felt like they won the Grand Prize not by chance, but by aiming for it. Although they are students, I felt a strong sense of professionalism.

Stories that left an impression included: “There are reasons for everything, including the game’s concept, and we can explain them properly.” “Since the game’s concept is mirrors, we bought real mirrors and studied them.” etc.

Indeed, having reasons for the development concept prevents the plan from wavering midway, and I felt that’s the same in work. (Lately, my own activities have been quite plan-wavering…)

It was content I could relate to in many ways.

4) Utilization in Non-Game Fields in 2019

I heard about three patterns of UE4 utilization examples outside of games.

In the introduction video of Reality, a video compositing tool? using UE4, I was shown incredibly accurate keying down to the level of individual hairs, and felt it was an amazing technology.

Also, UE4 is apparently now used for filming movies etc., and sometimes prototypes are made with UE4 to check the visuals before actual shooting.

The third one, Unreal Studio, was a familiar topic as I use it myself. By smoothly importing from CAD tools into UE4, UE4 is also used in the manufacturing industry.

5) Utilizing Console Assets? UE4 Utilization Case Study for the Mobile Game “Winning Eleven 2019”

A story about replacing the game engine of Winning Eleven with UE4.

Not just replacing it, but a story of successfully replacing the engine under circumstances with no time margin and no turning back.

Although spoken calmly, thinking about it carefully, I felt this might have been an incredibly dangerous story.

The people involved at the time must have been extremely tired…

Also, I thought I might want to try using the CRI File System mentioned in the talk. The term “dual file system” using it sounded cool.

6) Cloud Expression in “Ace Combat 7” Using UE4 x TrueSky

A story about expressing realistic skies in Ace Combat 7 using UE4 and TrueSky.

Thinking it was a game development talk, it started with “What are clouds?” and began like a physics lesson.

Using middleware called TrueSky allows creating realistic clouds, but to do so, it seems necessary to understand phenomena like why clouds form, what their components are, etc.

https://t.co/pJCuZJQeUj #ue4fest — ayuma (@ayuma_x) April 20, 2019

Apparently, as you master it, you start feeling things like “Today’s atmospheric color is deep” or “Today’s sky Mie scattering is strong” when looking at the actual sky.

It truly felt like professionals of the sky and clouds.

Also interesting was the story of various工夫 (ingenuity/contrivances) made to maintain 60fps in the PS4 VR version.

To make it lighter, they apparently even modified TrueSky itself, making me feel the programmers are strong.

Listening to the talk made me want to play Ace Combat!!

7) Automatic Background Generation Using Procedural Techniques: “1,000 Japanese Rooms”

A story about creating a mechanism for automatic generation of Japanese rooms using “Houdini,” which I often hear about recently.

Not just automatic generation, but the quality was also amazing, to the level where comparing it with photos of real rooms, it was hard to tell which was real.

Artistic nodes!! #UE4fest — ayuma (@ayuma_x) April 20, 2019

Received the power word “artistic nodes,” causing laughter!

However, reflecting on the Blueprints I’ve written in the past, I thought, “I have quite a few artistic nodes too…”

What strongly impressed me was the mechanism for connecting the kotatsu cord to the outlet, avoiding obstacles.

I felt it was genuinely amazing because trying to create this by programming it myself would require quite a bit of head-scratching.

After Party (Social Gathering)

After the fest ended, there was a social gathering for ticket holders and related personnel.

Although I didn’t know anyone, I was able to talk and exchange business cards with several people and had a fun time.

In the rock-paper-scissors game, I lost just before winning and couldn’t get a prize… I really wanted that thing with the UE4 shortcuts written on it.

But I was happy to be able to talk to Nan-san, the creator of Nanana, which I recently fell in love with at first sight on the Marketplace and purchased. Iron Fist Girl：Indie-usGames：Characters - UE4 Marketplace

This asset is really Cool!

Next is Yokohama

Although it was my first time participating in Unreal Fest, the large venue and the content, all of which were interesting, were truly stimulating.

I’ve been using UE4 for work for several years and creating various things, so I want to maintain this motivation and continue creating good things.

Unreal Fest happens twice a year, and the next one seems to be in Yokohama, so if my schedule allows, I’d like to go again.

Thank you to the related personnel for a wonderful fest.