Unreal Engine 5.7 Official Release, Blender Labs Eyes AI, and World Labs Launches Marble
Powerful new tools for 3D artists, worldbuilders, and game devs: UE5.7's production-ready PCG, Blender's AI-focused Lab, and World Labs' Marble platform reshaping how virtual worlds are built.
This week Unreal Engine 5.7 finally exited preview and is available for everyone. I put together a walkthrough covering what is production-ready versus still experimental, and which updates matter most if you are building worlds or working with materials. But first, the roundup.
New tech updates
World Labs launches Marble
World Labs released Marble, a platform that turns text, images, panoramas, or rough 3D layouts into persistent, editable 3D worlds you can export as Gaussian splats or meshes. The startup raised $230 million and frames it as the next leap in spatial intelligence. Creators like Unreal Sensei are already putting it through its paces.
Blender announces Blender Lab
Blender announced Blender Lab, a space for designers, developers, and researchers to collaborate on experimental projects across advanced input, volume rendering, light transport, and AI and ML integrations. Two upcoming labs stand out: USD authoring for smoother file exchange, and an MCP Server lab for natural-language AI interaction.
ZBrush previews a UI overhaul
At the ZBrush Summit, Maxon showed new retopology tools, a dedicated UV editor, and a complete UI overhaul that unifies the iPad and desktop designs, with the rollout expected in a future release. The full presentation is on Maxon's YouTube channel.
New video: Unreal Engine 5.7 for artists
5.7 is a big release. The highlights for artists: PCG is now production-ready and nearly twice as fast as 5.5 with a new viewport editor; Substrate is the default material system for new projects; experimental Nanite Voxelized Foliage ran more than 20,000 trees at 60fps on a base PS5 in the Witcher 4 tech demo; and there is a new Procedural Vegetation Editor, MegaLights in beta, and an AI Assistant plugin. My walkthrough of what is ready versus experimental is up on YouTube.
Tools covered in this issue
Unreal Engine 5
Best for teams chasing top-end visuals, big worlds, and cinematics.
Blender
Best for any indie doing 3D on a budget; usually the first tool in the pipeline.
Marble
Best for spinning up explorable 3D environments and backdrops fast.
ZBrush
Best for high-detail character and creature art destined for game engines.
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