Simulation

Create simulations that feel (almost) like real life.

Prepare for the unexpected. Prevent life-threatening situations. And do it with a level of accuracy and realism that make it hard to believe it’s a simulation at all. With the real-time rendering power of Unreal Engine, simulation teams no longer have to compromise.

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The latest news for simulation

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April 8, 2026

UE5 is becoming the platform of choice for robotics simulation

Discover how Unreal Engine is becoming the go-to platform for robotics teams, not just as a simulator but as a synthetic data factory powering the next generation of robotics systems.

Spotlight

January 30, 2026

Unreal Engine is everywhere at CES 2026—from HMIs to simulation and beyond

Check out the innovative Unreal Engine-powered demos showcased at CES 2026—and get a look at the Unreal Engine 5 Next-Gen HMI Experience, demonstrating UE5 driving every pixel inside a digital automotive cockpit.

News

Features for simulation

With Unreal Engine, everything’s included out of the box: modeling, animation, and effects tools are built right in. And when you want to go beyond the box, there’s access to the complete source code, a robust C++ API, and intuitive Blueprint visual scripting for non-programmers.

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Data handling that scales

With native support for many industry-standard 3D asset formats, virtual terrains, and communication protocols, and the ability to convert entire scenes at high fidelity through Datasmith, getting your data into UE5 is easy. Looking to build big? Nanite enables you to render massive amounts of geometric detail, while World Partition means you can easily manage and stream your levels.

Datasmith

Nanite micropolygon geometry

World Partition

Critical fidelity

When realism is essential to the success of your project, look no further than UE5: with features like real-time ray tracing and dynamic global illumination, interactive applications have never been more convincing. Plus, with built-in particle and physics systems, you can create film-quality real-time effects and simulations for everything from fire, smoke, and water, to cloth, destruction, and vehicles.

Real-time ray tracing

Lumen dynamic global illumination

Niagara VFX

Water

Physics

Multi-platform deployment

From a single UE5 project, you can deploy your simulation to anything from mobile devices and touchscreens to VR headsets and MR holograms. Deliver high-performance interactivity to any device with a web browser via Pixel Streaming, display real-time content at ultra-high resolution across multiple screens using nDisplay, or create a networked application for multiple participants—the choice is yours.

VR, AR & MR

Pixel Streaming

nDisplay multi-display rendering

Networking and multiplayer

Simulation success stories

Lockheed Martin uses Unreal Engine for aerospace simulation R&D

Find out how the Unreal Engine’s visual quality, interoperability, scalability, and vast talent pool is helping Lockheed Martin achieve their goals for next-gen simulation.

Lockheed

Algoryx brings high-fidelity physics simulation to Unreal Engine

Explore how a new AGX Dynamics for Unreal plugin enables companies to build accurate true-to-life mechanical simulation training and testing solutions.

Algoryx Simulation AB

dSPACE drives advancements in autonomous vehicle testing

Discover how Unreal Engine is helping AURELION to be on the front line of AV-simulated training with sensor-realistic simulation and top-grade visualization.

dSPACE gmbh

CAE pivots to Unreal Engine for next-gen flight simulators

Aviation training giant CAE harnesses the power of Unreal Engine’s superior graphics, as well as industry standards and commercial hardware, to meet its production goals.

CAE inc

Let’s get started.

Ready to make the jump into real-time 3D? Check out our recommended tutorials, samples, and documentation pages to help you get going.

Tutorials

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Your First Hour in Unreal Engine 5.2

Course · 3 years ago

This course will introduce you to the high-level basics of Unreal Engine 5 and the editor used to work within it. We’ll look at how to add assets, create lighting, make Blueprints, and even share your project.

Building Simulation Applications with Unreal Engine

Talks & Demos · 5 years ago

The training and simulation domain is trending strongly these days. In this episode of Inside Unreal, we discuss what we mean when we talk about simulations and explore the work done by creators and technology providers in the Unreal Engine ecosystem. We also demonstrate how to integrate worldwide content in your applications with the use of the Cesium for Unreal plugin and Esri’s ArcGIS Maps SDK for Unreal Engine plugin.

BeginPlay

Learning Path · 4 years ago

As such a powerful tool, Unreal Engine can be a lot to take in, which is why understanding its foundations is so important when starting out. BeginPlay, a constantly evolving survey of Unreal Engine's features, is designed to help with that.

Documentation

Know what you want to do, but not how? Dig into our wide range of documentation to find your footing!

XR Best Practices

Sharing XR Experiences

Building Virtual Worlds

Making Interactive Experiences

Go to documentation

Licensing

We’ve streamlined our license terms to make your choices clearer. Need something designed just for you? Work with us to create a custom license. Visit our FAQ or reach out to the community if you have any questions.

Under $1 million USD in revenue?

Free

Game developers (royalties apply after $1 million USD gross product revenue)
Individuals and small businesses (with less than $1 million USD in annual gross revenue)
For educators and schools (no revenue limits)

Access to the source code
All platforms & features
Forums and documentation on the Epic Developer Community

Download now View FAQ Licensing Terms

Over $1 million USD in revenue?

Royalty-based

If you're creating a game or application that relies on engine code at runtime and will be licensed to third party end users, you'll pay royalties and won't be required to purchase seats.

Seat-based

If you're using Unreal Engine for commercial purposes, have generated more than $1 million in the past 12 months, and are not creating a game or application that relies on engine code at runtime and will be licensed to third party end users, then a seat license fee is required.

Unreal Engine is just the beginning.

Discover our collection of creative tools, content, and resources to help turn your ideas into reality.

MetaHuman

Customize and animate highly realistic digital human characters for use in your Unreal Engine projects.

Take a look

RealityScan

Produce high-fidelity 3D models from laser scans and photos that you can use in your real-time scenes.

Find out more

The Fab marketplace

Access a huge library of free and purchasable digital assets—3D models, materials, sound, VFX, digital humans, and more.

Browse now

Quixel Megascans

Browse the world’s largest library of AAA, cinema-quality assets based on real-world scan data, ready for use in your projects.

Explore now

Looking to use the Unreal Engine logo in your project? Access our brand guidelines and logos here.

Need help?

Connect with creators across industries and around the globe. Share everything from shortcuts to snippets to secret shader tricks. When you use Unreal Engine, you’re never alone—our community of hundreds of thousands of developers is here to support you as you bring your idea to life.

Dev Community Forums

Ask and answer questions; show off your work and get inspiration from others.

Unreal Source

Come hang out with us and our developer community on Discord.