Nanite Foliage and MegaLights Lead Unreal Engine 5.7 Update
November 14, 2025Author: Łukasz Grochal

Unreal Engine 5.7 builds on next-gen gaming tech, making it easier to design huge, detailed worlds with realistic foliage thanks to the new Nanite Foliage system. PCG (Procedural Content Generation) is now production-ready, so devs can procedurally scatter natural assets and automate level design with less manual work.

The Substrate material system brings truly physical, layered shaders — fewer hacks, more predictable surfaces for metals, leathers, and skin. MegaLights allow dynamic lighting at scale: hundreds of moving lights with real-time shadows no longer crush your GPU. Animation workflows get a boost with streamlined editor tools, better blend shape sculpting and bone placement, and smarter IK retargeting that handles squash, stretch, and self-collisions.

Virtual production is smoother with Live Link Broadcast, letting teams stream real-time animation and improved Composure for live-action/CG blending. Iteration is faster, environments look sharper, and big projects can push visual fidelity further—all with cleaner workflows.