Architecture

Blur the line between real and unreal.

Go beyond how a design will look. Show people how it’ll feel. With Unreal Engine, you can create immersive designs that feel stunningly real—and explore them in lifelike detail before you ever break ground.

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The latest news for architecture

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June 23, 2026

Unreal Engine 5.8 is now available

Build bigger, better, more differentiated worlds in less time; easily populate them with high-fidelity animated characters and custom vegetation; and light and render them at the speed and quality your audiences demand.

News

June 17, 2026

State of Unreal 2026: Top news from the show

At State of Unreal 2026, we shared our vision for Unreal Engine 6, released Unreal Engine 5.8, open-sourced the next-generation version control system Lore, highlighted UEFN’s growing developer ecosystem, and previewed improvements to the Epic Games Store. Learn more here.

Events

Features for architecture

With Unreal Engine, you can take your data from raw CAD, BIM, or DCC files to stunning immersive real-time experiences and offline-rendered-quality linear media in less time than you thought possible. Then, iterate to your heart’s content, react to feedback, and see your changes update in the blink of an eye.

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Aggregation, iteration, collaboration

Import entire scenes—including animation and metadata—from multiple popular CAD and BIM packages and update them on the fly with Datasmith Direct Link. Automate your data cleanup and optimization tasks with Dataprep tools. Make modeling and UV tweaks directly in UE5 if you don’t have access to the source package. And participate in collaborative design reviews with a template specifically designed for architecture.

Datasmith

Dataprep

Modeling tools

Collab Viewer Templates

Photorealistic real-time rendering

Easily create and edit physically based materials with the flexible node-based Material Editor. Get true-to-life reflections, refractions, and soft shadows with ray tracing and path tracing. Turn on dynamic global illumination that reacts to changes in direct lighting or geometry on the fly. And create convincing exterior scenes with the atmospheric Sun and Sky system.

Material Editor

Ray tracing and path tracing

Lumen dynamic global illumination

Sun and Sky

Courtesy of The Boundary

One asset, every deliverable

From a single UE5 project, you can showcase your work any way you want: gorgeous high-res stills and videos with Movie Render Queue; compelling immersive experiences with support for extended reality deployment; and even cloud-based delivery to anyone, anywhere with an internet connection and a web browser with Pixel Streaming.

Movie Render Queue

VR, AR & MR

Pixel Streaming

Architecture success stories

How UE is powering the future of home building

Find out how real-time visualization is evolving from marketing to a tool for de-risking investment decisions.

Industry roundup

AFRY uses UE5 to visualize heavy datasets for large-scale infrastructure projects

Explore how open-world game tech is being repurposed to render entire infrastructure landscapes.

AFRY

PropVR’s digital twins help real estate developer boost revenue by 10x

Learn how immersive 3D experiences are transforming sales results for luxury real estate.

PropVR | DAMAC Properties

SpaceForm creates an immersive digital twin for EDGE Liverpool Street

See how Google Earth data and real-time 3D combine to bring an unbuilt office building to life.

SpaceForm

Let’s get started.

New to real-time 3D? Making the switch from another engine? Wherever you’re coming from, we’ve got onboarding, tutorials, samples, documentation, and more to help you get started.

Tutorials

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Get Started with Unreal Engine

This five-part video series takes you on a whistlestop tour of the essentials, from installing UE5 and navigating the interface to packaging your project.

Your First Hour in Unreal Engine

Follow along with this course to learn the high-level basics of UE5 by making a very simple 3D Plaformer game from start to finish.

Blueprint Introduction

Learn the basic concepts, tools, and navigation of Unreal Engine’s intuitive Blueprint visual scripting system by building simple interactions.

Documentation

Whether you’re an artist, a designer, or a programmer, our comprehensive documentation has you covered.

Unreal Engine for New Users

Understanding the Basics

Datasmith

XR Development

Collab Viewer Templates

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Sample projects

Samples are pre-built projects designed to help you quickly learn and get working in Unreal Engine without needing to start from scratch. Download, play, deconstruct, and make them your own.

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Content Examples

This project’s stations showcase specific UE5 features, including animation, audio, Blueprints, Landscapes, materials, physics, and more.

Hillside Sample

Developed by Epic, Safdie Architects, and Neoscape, this project includes both the original unbuilt design proposal and the existing building.

City Sample

Dissect the city scene fromThe Matrix Awakens: An Unreal Engine 5 Experience—complete with buildings, vehicles, and crowds of MetaHumans.

Pixel Streaming Demo

This showcase demonstrates how to stream a UE application to web browsers on desktop and mobile devices without requiring any download or installation.

Talks

Events like Unreal Fest bring together creators and developers from across different industries to share ideas and grow their networks. Here is a selection of AECO-related talks from recent gatherings.

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The State of Unreal for AECO | Unreal Fest Orlando 2025

Epic Games’ Simon Blakeney and Rob Harrison examine the use of real-time technology in AECO projects around the world, and outline the benefits and outcomes it delivers.

Engineering Digital Twins for Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics | Unreal Fest Stockholm 2025

Infrastrutture Milano Cortina 2026’s Francesco Cappilli details how SimicoTwin powers AR and streaming experiences for stakeholders.

Transforming Infrastructure Design With Unreal Engine Tools | Unreal Fest Orlando 2025

Representatives from HNTB detail the custom tools and workflows their team is building to bring infrastructure projects to life in Unreal Engine.

Dynamic Data-Driven Worlds: Transforming Massive BIM Models | Unreal Fest Orlando 2025

Imerza showcases how they combine real-world data sources with Revit and Navisworks models to build immersive digital twins.

Let’s get started.

Ready to build something? Check out our recommended tutorials, samples, and documentation pages to help you get going.

Tutorials

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Lighting Essential Concepts and Effects

Course · 8 years ago

This course explains the basics of setting up lighting in Unreal Engine. Learn about the different types of lights, how to use them together, and how to add special effects like fog and reflections.

Hillside Sample

Sample Project · 3 years ago

The Hillside Sample Project is an archviz scene made by Epic Games, Safdie Architects, and Neoscape.

Introduction to Procedural Generation plugin in UE5.2

Tutorial · 3 years ago

This tutorial is a series of videos aimed at kickstarting your journey with the Procedural Content Generation plugin, introduced as Experimental in 5.2.

Documentation

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

Datasmith

Artist Quick Start

Rendering High Quality Frames

Lumen Global Illumination and Reflections

Mixed Reality Capture

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, services, and resources designed to help you turn ideas into reality.

Twinmotion

Transform BIM and CAD data into stunning visualizations and VR experiences with a few clicks—no training required.

Take a look

MetaHuman

Customize and animate highly realistic digital human characters for use in your scenes.

Dive in

RealityScan

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

Find out more

Unreal Editor for Fortnite

Digitally recreate spaces in UEFN that extend incredible architectural experiences into the world of Fortnite where millions can engage with them.

Check it out

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.