We’re excited to share a few of the new features now available on the branch on GitHub. To be able to try out these new features, you will need to download the source code for the branch and build the Engine yourself. For more information about how to build the Engine from source code, please see page. The branch on GitHub is constantly being updated and is not quality tested so it may be potentially unstable. We do not recommend using the branch for project development. If you wish to wait, these features will be made available to all in an upcoming official release.
**Engine News
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New Features
New: Blueprintable Components
Create your own component types using Blueprint scripting! You can save these components and reuse them on any actor!
Click “Add Component”, then select “New Blueprint Script Component…” right at the top. You can do on actors in your level, from inside any Actor Class Blueprint, and even from the Content Browser’s “New Blueprint…” window.
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Choose a **Parent Class **for your new component. “Scene Components” have a 3D position within the actor, but “Actor Components” only have scripting logic. Unless you need a location for something, choose “Actor Component” for your base class. Afterwards, you’ll be prompted to save your new component as an asset.
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Here is the fun part – writing Blueprint script code for your new component. In example, we rotate the component’s owner (the actor) around the yaw axis every single frame using the Tick event. We named component “Spinner” because it spins actors around!
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Now, you can** drop the component onto any actor** in your scene and they will start rotating when the game begins. Yay, reusable modular functionality!
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You can also drop it into any normal actor class Blueprint. Your new components can always be found in the “Add Component” menu (under the “Custom” category), and also in the Content Browser.
New: Automatic Asset Importing!
Importing meshes, sounds and textures has never been easier. Simply save your source art files under your project’s Content folder, and the editor will automatically import the new files, ready to be used in UE4!
If you update these files from an external application, the editor will detect that and automatically reimport your content! makes iterating on game content much faster.
is turned on by default, but you can toggle it using the “Monitor Content Directories” in the “Loading & Saving” section of editor preferences.
New: HTML5 Platform Fully Supported! (WebGL)
You can now package and** run your game in a web browser** using the version of Unreal Engine installed through the Launcher.
Simply install the Emscripten SDK, restart the editor and launcher, then use the Launch drop down to select a web browser!
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Your game may take a while to prepare for HTML5, especially the first time, as assets and code are optimized for the web browser.
Note: You will only be able to target HTML5 from Windows, and not Mac, for the time being.
Additionally, Firefox is the suggested browser for development, although the other standard browsers work well for Shipping builds.
New: Android Development from Mac
The Mac version of Unreal Engine now fully supports Android development!
You will need Java for MacOS and the Android SDK (which can be installed using the TADP installer in Engine/Extras/Android).
After installing, either restart the editor, or set paths to the SDK in the new Android SDK section in Project Settings.