Unreal Engine 4.17 debuts with experimental support for Apple's ARKit

Devs curious about augmented reality games and experiences should note that Epic updated its Unreal Engine to 4.17 today, and nestled in the list of additions is experimental support for Apple's new ARKit tech.

This is a big deal if you're at all interested in making an AR game for mobile devices, since ARKit works with all modern iOS devices running iOS 11 or later. 

When Apple debuted ARKit at its dev conference this summer, it made games a centerpiece, bringing up a pair of staffers from the new AR division of WingNut (a company founded by film director Peter Jackson) to showcase a game demo they'd built using UE4 (video embedded above).

Of course, ARKit is currently out in beta form ahead of a full release later this year, which is why the latest UE4 update tags its ARKit support as experimental; in the update notes, Epic states it wants "developers to play around with the new feature set before the official support arrives from Apple in iOS 11 later this year."

You can read the full list of changes made for Unreal Engine 4.17 -- everything from Xbox One X game dev support to an improved interface for editing meshes -- over on Epic's blog.