Epic Games Announce That They Will Be Adding A First-Person Camera Mode To ‘Fortnite’
by Michael Betar IV
'Fortnite' Chapter 3, Season 2 (Image: Epic)
On March 20, during their “State of Unreal” report that was streamed onto YouTube live from the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Epic Games outlined a public roadmap toward the future of the massively successful battle royale title, Fortnite.
In the outline, they had laid out plans to release future seasons of the game using an Unreal Engine editor they launched last year, titled Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN), which was designed to allow players to create their own games and levels for the game. With the new updates, players will be able to do in-game trades with other players, use more assets from the LEGO and Fall Guys’ properties while designing levels, including proximity voice chat to the game, and, of course, be able to make a camera that would allow players to be able to play the game in a “first-person camera perspective” (FPS) in some game modes.
Since its launch as Fortnite: Save the World in 2017, players have been requesting the option to play the third-person game in first-person so that they would be able to have better accuracy when shooting the game’s various guns. From what can be seen in the teasers shown during their talk at GDC, this request may be becoming a reality… depending on the player-generated game mode you play.
Outside of the brief second in their teaser video where we can see a player look down a gun’s scope, we were also introduced to an “orbit camera” system that was designed for a test level that the team was working on to showcase possibilities to what players can create using the new UEFN updates. During the demonstration of this camera, it was shown that players could create an FPS camera system for their own game modes.
This new plan to use UEFN for future seasons was criticized by some developers and gamers due to the new engine being designed only for Fortnite with previous seasons being developed in the more powerful engine used by Epic Games, Unreal Engine 5 (UE5). Many critics of the engine change have noted that they feel that the editor is “watered down” compared to the engine the game was using previously, with gamers wondering why couldn’t the creative mode use UE5 instead of the UEFN editor.
These updates were noted in the roadmap to be launched later this year, with fans awaiting in anticipation to see what players will create using these new tools.
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