Some assembly required

Epic Games has placed Modular SciFi Station in Fab’s current limited-time free collection. The promotion ends on 16 June 2026 at 9:59 AM Eastern Time.

Environment artist Martin Milz created the package. It contains the structures and surfaces needed to assemble a realistic science-fiction station inside Unreal Engine as a collection of assets, maps and materials created for realistic AAA visual targets and production budgets.

The pack uses a modular construction approach. Artists can combine reusable sections rather than treating the station as one fixed environment – all the Greeblies, so to speak. Walls, floors and specialised science-fiction components can form different layouts from the same source pieces. That puts the package squarely in environment art territory. It can supply a starting point for game levels, realtime backgrounds, motion graphics shots and visual effects environments without requiring every corridor panel to begin life as an empty polygon.

147 pieces of future furniture

The pack contains 147 unique 3D meshes. Its architectural parts include metal walls and flooring. The more specialised pieces include solar panels, antennae and circuitry. Together, these elements cover both the structural shell and the smaller details that make a base look occupied by someone with an alarming electricity bill. Vertex counts range from 500 to 10,000 vertices per part. The assets also include levels of detail, and those LODs give Unreal projects multiple mesh representations for different viewing distances.

The pack targets realistic imagery rather than a stylised visual language. Its product description calls the assets AAA quality. That wording is a marketing claim. The listing does not provide a production benchmark or performance target that defines the term.

Still, 147 modular pieces provide considerably more variation than a single finished station model. Artists can arrange teh same components into multiple rooms, corridors and exterior structures while retaining a common design language.

Materials included

The collection contains four master materials and 44 material instances. The surfaces cover metal, fabric and ground materials. Texture resolution reaches 4,096 by 4,096 pixels. Master materials let a project control shared shader behaviour from a smaller number of parent setups. Material instances then expose variations without requiring a separate shader network for every wall panel or floor tile.

Engine range

The package supports Unreal Engine 4.20 and later releases in the Unreal Engine 4 line. The listing is marked as not generated with AI. It also marks AI usage as not allowed.

Licence without the fog machine

The assets use the Fab Standard License. That licence permits private and commercial use. Artists may modify the assets and incorporate them into projects. Completed projects may be distributed commercially with the content inside them. The licence also permits use with compatible tools beyond Unreal Engine. It does not restrict licensed content to Epic’s engine.

Collaborators working on the same project may receive the asset directly, through a private repository or as part of the project. That permission does not turn the package into a general studio free-for-all. Sharing applies to collaborators working on the licensed project

Free has an expiry date

Modular SciFi Station is free through 16 June 2026 at 9:59 AM Eastern Time.

Modular SciFi Station on Fab

Fab Limited-Time Free collection

Fab Standard License

The post Free Sci-Fi Station Lands on Fab first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

For those who don’t know the tool: Unreal Engine is a realtime 3D engine and editor used for games, VFX, and virtual production, with tools like MetaHuman, Nanite, and procedural systems like PCG built in.

The preview nobody should install on Friday

Unreal Engine 5.8 Preview is available now to download via the Epic Games Launcher, GitHub, or for Linux. Epic Games positions this Preview around performance advancements and systems meant to feel more reliable, scalable, and intuitive.

That Preview label still means what it always means: The build is not quality tested, it remains under active development, and it can and propably will be unstable until the final release. Make a copy of your projects for testing rather than converting your mainline work.

Mesh Terrain goes full 3D, experimentally

The headline feature in 5.8 Preview is Mesh Terrain, flagged as Experimental. It uses a 3D mesh based architecture for building massive environments and it works natively with the Procedural Content Generation Framework. If your pipeline already leans on procedural layout, the idea is straightforward: terrain becomes part of the same graph driven worldbuilding conversation, instead of a separate special case that artists tiptoe around.

The practical impact depends on what you need out of terrain today. The announcement calls it a “novel architecture” (Scaaaary words) and keeps it at the overview level, so details like feature completeness, interchange expectations, and performance characteristics remain a guesswork.

PCG gets edits without losing the recipe

5.8 Preview also updates the PCG framework to allow manual edits directly on procedural output while keeping the underlying procedural logic intact. That matters because it targets a classic production pain: the moment an artist has to hand fix something and the whole setup turns into a one way bake.

In plain terms, you can push results around without instantly severing the link back to the graph. The sources describe this as an improvement alongside other iterative changes, but they do not specify which nodes, asset types, or editor workflows get the most love in this Preview.

Vegetation: more biology, more Nanite, more questions

The Procedural Vegetation Editor receives significant enhancements in 5.8 Preview. The goal here is building high quality, biologically correct, Nanite ready vegetation assets directly inside the editor. The sources also say you can import meshes from external DCC tools, which points at less time spent rebuilding base shapes just to satisfy an in engine authoring workflow.

Currently, we are about to get the following features:

• Growth Node
• Seed Generation
• Skeletal Extraction from 3D Mesh or 2D image/Atlas
• Foliage Grafting
• Object Avoidance and Carving
• Trimming- branch loops, displacement tessellation
• Mesher Improvements
• Visualization Modes
• Trunk Material Compositor

Real world artists will appreciate that this tool stays honest about what it is trying to do. It aims at fast iteration and authoring inside the editor, not at replacing dedicated plant tools overnight. The community replies in the same thread also report issues and broken behaviors in specific cases, which fits the Preview warning label. Treat it as a sandbox build, not as a deadline build.

MetaHumans scale up, and they get less picky about input meshes

Crowd work gets a bump through the MetaHuman Crowd plugin. The sources describe scaling from tens to thousands of characters for populating realtime worlds. If you have ever tried to sell a crowd shot without a crowd system, you already know why that matters.

On the creation side, the Preview also expands the ability to transform almost any human mesh into a MetaHuman, now with simultaneous head and body conforming. Epic Games calls this as a workflow improvement, but the current sources do not spell out constraints, quality expectations, or edge cases for stylized characters.

Lights, rigs, faces, and a grab bag of everything else

MegaLights reaches full production readiness in 5.8 Preview. Control Rig Physics moves to Beta, and the face rigging and morph target editing tools expand to support in editor sculpt driven facial workflows and shot sculpting. The sources describe this as strengthening blend shape authoring for stylized characters, custom skeletal meshes, and MetaHumans, plus pose corrections.

Rigging also gets Direct Mesh Controls, an Experimental system that lets Control Rig controls sit directly on sections of a skeletal mesh. If you like your controls where your hands are, that sentence probably reads like a small miracle.

Past the hero items, the Preview notes further work across production rendering and virtual production workflows, plus updates to Dataflow and Chaos Physics.
https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/unreal-engine-5-8-preview/2721597

The post Unreal Engine 5.8 Preview rolls in first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

For those who do not know the tool, RealityScan is Epic’s photogrammetry application for reconstructing 3D assets, scenes, and datasets from photographs and scans. It is used in areas such as VFX, game development, visualization, heritage capture, and geospatial workflows. RealityScan 2.1, the previous major release, added broader automation options, support for SLAM data, and other workflow extensions, so 2.1.1 reads very much like the expected follow-up pass: less about headline features, more about making interchange and export behave properly when real projects get involved.

RealityScan 2.1.1 is now available, and while this is not the kind of release that arrives with fireworks and a new category of buzzword, it does address several parts of the workflow that tend to matter once scans actually have to leave the application and survive contact with the rest of production.

The most relevant improvements are in the COLMAP pipeline. RealityScan 2.1.1 now exports either to a flat folder structure or to the standard COLMAP directory layout, supports both binary and ASCII export, improves mask export behavior, and filters low-accuracy points automatically during export. On import, Epic has added support for the FULL_OPENCV camera model, which should make it easier to bring in a wider range of calibration data without extra cleanup elsewhere in the chain.

Mask handling is one of the more useful practical changes here. The exporter now supports AI-generated masks, and users can choose whether to keep the .mask.ext suffix when exporting into the standard COLMAP directory structure. Epic also lists fixes for cases where selected mask layers failed to export, along with corrections for quality degradation when exporting COLMAP data based on original distorted images. That is the sort of update that sounds small in a changelog and rather less small when it breaks a handoff.

Another addition is the new “RealityScan XMPs with Image List” export in the Registration exports. This makes it possible to export XMPs corresponding either to the original distorted images or to undistorted images, and to choose between the “local:1 Euclidean” and “Grid plane” coordinate systems. At the same time, Epic has removed the separate Image list export from the Alignment tab, because the same function already existed in Registration export. Exported image lists now use the .imagelist extension, which can be reused when importing inputs or input selections back into RealityScan.

There are also smaller but welcome naming and consistency changes. Texture layer names now respect the specified name, including when selecting layers for texturing. Epic also removed some extra information from those names, including 16-bit and HDR prefixes, and adjusted numbering. On the command line side, importColmap becomes loadColmap, importBundler becomes loadBundler, and importFlightLog becomes importTrajectory. Not glamorous, but coherent. That alone can save someone a mildly irritating half-hour that could be spent watching cat videos.

The fixed-issues section is long, and in this case that is probably good news. Epic lists corrections for an incorrect “model is already colorized” warning on certain LiDAR models, ignored intrinsic parameters during flight log imports, EXR import issues, misplaced imported masks, raster artifacts in depth and mask exports, black mask exports in some cases, crashes related to LOD export settings and long computations, scene transformations being incorrectly retained after COLMAP and Bundler imports, and support for importing PLY files generated by the CGAL library. There are also multiple fixes for export behavior in cameras, orthographic projections, LAS classifications, contour export, and Nira upload handling.

Epic Games documentation for RealityScan 2.1.1

RealityScan 2.1.1 adds better COLMAP support and new XMP export options

RealityScan 2.1.1 is a maintenance release, but a practical one. Epic updates COLMAP exchange, adds new XMP with image list export options, cleans up mask export, and fixes a long list of editor, alignment, and CLI issues.

06.04.2026

Epic Games updates RealityScan: 2.1 out

pic’s RealityScan 2.1 brings LiDAR & SLAM import, server automation tools and improved UV and rendering support.

27.11.2025

RealityScan Mobile 1.8 with Tools for On-the-Go Scanning

Version 1.8 of RealityScan Mobile introduces three capture modes (including AR Guidance), mesh clean-up tools, focus peaking, capture timer and watertight mesh output: ideal for everybody capturing on-the-go.

21.11.2025

RealityScan 2.0: Epic Gives RealityCapture a New Name and New Tricks

Epic overhauls RealityCapture into RealityScan 2.0, complete with AI masking, LiDAR fusion, and a mobile-first workflow focus.

17.06.2025

RealityScan 1.5.3 Update Eases 3D Scans with Better Processing for iOS

Epic’s RealityScan update brings flexible processing, smoother workflows, and better support for iPad Pro and image uploads.

07.11.2024

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The post RealityScan 2.1.1 adds better COLMAP support and new XMP export options first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Quixel / Epic has officially discontinued Quixel Mixer and published a final version as an offline application. Quixel describes this release as the last one and states that there will be no further updates. The same announcement also makes clear that the software is provided without official support, which is the polite corporate way of saying: archive it now, because nobody is coming back with a hotfix later.

What was Quixel Mixer?

For anyone who has not used it: Quixel Mixer is a standalone material and texture authoring tool for building PBR texture sets via layers, masks, and blends, typically used for game assets, VFX props, and environment work. In a pipeline it sits in the “author texture maps for a mesh” slot, exporting standard texture maps that can be consumed by DCC tools and renderers. The discontinuation does not change what the tool is good at, it changes the expectations around maintenance and long-term compatibility.

How to get it?

Quixel states the final offline build is available via Quixel account login, and secondary coverage notes an installer option to download free Mixer asset packs, described as including 800+ assets. Older Mixer versions remain downloadable, but with no guarantee they will keep working. For production, this boils down to a familiar rule: if Mixer is still part of your workflow, lock the installer, lock the asset packs, and treat the whole thing like legacy software that must be reproducible rather than “kept current”.

The post Quixel Mixer dead, final offline version released first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

The new CardCutter add-on for Blender converts texture masks into usable 3D geometry for Nanite-based projects in Unreal Engine 5. Created by developer Philipp Russo, the tool simplifies building game-ready foliage and decals by generating optimised meshes directly from source textures.

CardCutter operates as a geometry generation tool that converts 2D texture data, either alpha-masked colour images or greyscale masks, into fully triangulated 3D meshes suitable for Nanite rendering. The add-on functions within Blender’s Python API and supports Blender 4.0 or higher. According to the developer, the geometry output is designed to conform to Nanite’s mesh constraints, favouring dense, evenly distributed triangles over traditional quad-based topologies.

Each processed mask is interpreted as a binary image, with the alpha threshold defining the polygon contour. The tool applies an internal vectorisation step to trace the boundary of the visible region, followed by a polygon simplification algorithm to remove redundant vertices. It then uses a relaxation solver to re-distribute triangle density uniformly across the surface, creating stable topology for Nanite’s internal micro-polygon clustering.

Automatic atlas splitting

When the user provides a texture atlas (for example, a leaf sheet), CardCutter automatically detects discrete masked regions using connected-component labelling. Each detected region becomes a separate mesh object in Blender’s scene graph. This removes the need for manual cutting or polygon mask painting, which is typically required in foliage production. Each region retains its local UV coordinates, preserving the original texture mapping from the atlas. The output meshes can be exported directly as FBX or glTF, maintaining UV alignment and pivot orientation suitable for Unreal Engine import.

Geometry presets for performance tiers

CardCutter offers several density presets: Low, Medium, and High, which define the target number of triangles per pixel area. The lower settings generate lightweight meshes for background vegetation, while the higher settings produce Nanite-ready geometry that benefits from Unreal’s automatic cluster streaming.

The generated meshes are particularly intended for organic and irregular silhouettes like leaves, vines, ivy, ferns, but the developer also notes suitable use cases in flat debris, stickers, posters, and paper scraps, where alpha planes normally create overdraw problems.

In Nanite rendering, alpha cutouts are computationally expensive since masked fragments are still rasterised. By converting them into actual geometry, CardCutter removes the transparency pass entirely, allowing the GPU to perform visibility culling at the triangle level. This is beneficial for scenes with dense foliage or decal overlays.

Export workflow and integration

Meshes generated by CardCutter can be exported directly from Blender using Unreal’s standard FBX pipeline. The add-on does not alter material data; instead, it preserves UV maps for external shading setups. Unreal users can apply the same texture as an opacity mask or base colour without modification.

CardCutter also supports consistent vertex orientation to avoid flipped normals during export. According to the developer, all geometry is manifold and suitable for Nanite import without further cleanup, though it may require triangulation if the user modifies topology post-generation.

Pricing and licensing

CardCutter is distributed via Gumroad. The Individual/Freelance licence costs €12 and includes full functionality, updates, and one user seat. The Studio/Enterprise licence, priced at €50, allows unlimited installations within one facility and provides priority support for pipeline integration. Both include lifetime updates and are maintained by Philipp Russo under The Triangle Forge label.

Technical limitations and notes

At the time of publication, CardCutter is compatible exclusively with Blender 4.0 or newer. The add-on does not currently support real-time texture-to-mesh previews or batch automation through the command line.

Users should test export consistency when integrating the tool into complex Unreal foliage systems that depend on hierarchical instancing or runtime material overrides. The add-on outputs static geometry only, without procedural modifiers or animation rigs.

The post CardCutter turns texture into Nanite meshes first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

For those who don’t know the tool: Fab is Epic Games marketplace for 3D assets, replacing the Unreal Marketplace. It regularly offers time-limited free asset sets that you can permanently add to your library once claimed. These packs are commercially usable, work in most DCC applications and engines, and are a practical way to expand or start an asset collection without cost.

Two weeks to go before the calendar expires, and if you are looking to bury your good intentions somewhere scenic, Epic Games has the perfect spot. The Cryptic Realms Necropolis pack, normally $99.99, is free on Fab until 27 January 2026.

The pack offers 371 placeable objects to construct a stylised graveyard environment. It includes 80 modular meshes for ruins, tombs and crumbling architecture, plus graves, coffins, and set dressing items to complete the scene of your artistic demise.

Death by detail

Each asset includes 23 materials and textures, up to 4,096 by 4,096 pixels. The models support Nanite and Lumen, Unreal Engine’s systems for high-density geometry and dynamic lighting. There are three preset lighting setups to choose from, along with a modular environmental audio system to ensure your ghosts sound convincing. The pack is built for Unreal Engine 5.1 and later. However, the Fab Standard licence allows use in any engine or tool, including commercial projects, as long as the Fab EULA is followed.

Available now, before it’s dead again

The Necropolis pack can be downloaded free from Fab until 27 January 2026, after which it returns to its regular price. Perfect timing if you plan to give your old projects a decent burial before the new year arrives. As always, test assets thoroughly before using them in production or before the next resurrection of your pipeline.

The post Bury Your Good Intentions in 3D first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Epic Games has released the Ancient Temple Ruins asset pack as part of its time-limited free content on Fab. The pack includes 80 modular environment assets for creating ruined temple scenes and will remain free to download until 13 January 2026.

Created by Shapefarm Senior Environment Artist Rasmus Bagner, the set provides modular architecture (walls, roofs, floors), vegetation (trees, palms, rubber plants) and a range of small scatter props. The assets are built for Unreal Engine 5, making full use of Nanite virtualised geometry. All textures ship at up to 4096×4096px resolution.

Lumen lighting and engine flexibility

The included sample project demonstrates the assets within a Lumen lighting setup, featuring four predefined lighting environments. According to Epic, only the main tree asset includes LODs; all other models rely on Nanite for rendering efficiency. The pack is compatible with Unreal Engine 5.2 or newer.

Although designed for Unreal, the assets are released under the Fab Standard licence, which allows use in “any engine or tool”, including for commercial projects, as long as users comply with the Fab EULA.

Download and production notes

The Ancient Temple Ruins pack can be claimed from Fab’s listing page before the deadline. Once added to a user’s library, the assets remain available permanently. The models can be imported into other tools such as Blender, Maya, or 3ds Max through standard file export.

As with any new asset pack, we recommend testing performance and compatibility within active pipelines before using the models in production scenes. Seriously. Remember your New Year’s resolutions!

The post Epic drops 80 free temple assets on Fab first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Epic Games has released version 2.1 of its desktop 3D-scanning software RealityScan. The update introduces expanded LiDAR workflows, automation interfaces for production pipelines, and several image-processing and export improvements.

LiDAR, SLAM and classified point clouds

RealityScan 2.1 now supports importing SLAM (Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping) data, including trajectories, images and point clouds from drones or handheld scanners. SLAM captures can be merged with standard photogrammetry or laser scans, improving reconstructions in large or complex environments. The release adds support for classified point clouds in LAS/LAZ formats using ASPRS classification tags. Users can include or exclude specific classes, such as vegetation or vehicles, when generating meshes, a workflow particularly useful for urban or environmental captures. These additions extend RealityScan beyond photogrammetry into hybrid LiDAR and image-based scanning.

Automation and server integration

Version 2.1 places strong emphasis on automation. A new command-line interface (CLI) provides batch commands for import, reconstruction, and export tasks. It replaces the older reporting system with a template-based data extraction tool that can generate structured outputs for tracking and review. RealityScan can now be remotely controlled through REST and gRPC APIs, allowing studios to run automated or farm-based scanning operations. Sample Python scripts are included to demonstrate integration. For headless setups, a Linux-compatible CLI build is provided. It operates through a bundled Wine environment and can process alignments, meshing, texturing and exports without a GUI, supporting scalable production farms.

Workflow and quality improvements

UV unwrapping has been revised with a coloured checker map that visualises distortion, adjusted thresholds for large-triangle removal, and a default-enabled texture defragmentation chart to maintain clean UV layouts. Rendering now includes a “render-camera view” that reuses the original capture camera positions. Artists can match or remove lens distortion and export surface normals in world or camera space. Export formats have been expanded with OpenCV registration files, XMP metadata for distorted and undistorted imagery, and improved COLMAP export that retains native distortion parameters.

Licensing, hardware and availability

RealityScan remains free for individuals or studios earning under US $1 million per year. A commercial licence costs US $1,250 annually. The software supports Windows 8 and later or Windows Server 2008 +. A Linux CLI build targets Ubuntu 24.04 and Fedora 39 via Wine. Because RealityScan’s reconstruction relies on CUDA acceleration, an NVIDIA GPU is required.

RealityScan Mobile 1.8

In parallel, Epic Games released RealityScan Mobile 1.8 for iOS and Android. The update adds AR-guided capture, object-mode background removal, focus peaking, mesh clean-up tools, a capture-interval timer, and an optional watertight mesh export for 3D printing. It remains free and targets rapid on-site asset capture for integration into RealityScan desktop or Unreal Engine pipelines.

Conclusion

RealityScan 2.1 advances Epic’s scanning suite into a hybrid LiDAR and photogrammetry toolset, pairing automation with precision UV and export control. The update strengthens its role as a practical choice for VFX, game, and visualisation workflows. As always, test stability and compatibility before deploying the new release in production.

The post Epic Games updates RealityScan: 2.1 out first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

The mobile version of the photogrammetry app RealityScan Mobile 1.8 by Epic Games has been updated to version 1.8 for both iOS and Android. The official release notes detail several new features, fixes and known issues.

What’s new: Capture modes and tools

RealityScan 1.8 introduces three shooting modes designed for different use cases. AR Guidance mode employs augmented reality overlays to display a live point-cloud and photo positions, showing where more images are needed for complete coverage. Object Mode adds advanced camera controls and automatic background removal, allowing users to rotate or move the object for a full capture. Standard Mode offers the same controls without background removal, suitable for scanning objects within their original environment.

A new interactive view cube enables rotation from any angle and switching to predefined orthographic views. Mesh Clean Up tools now allow users to select and delete unwanted parts of a generated mesh using lasso or rectangle selection. The addition of focus peaking overlays highlights areas that are sharply focused, improving capture quality in-camera.

Version 1.8 also introduces a capture interval timer, enabling automatic photo capture at regular intervals — a practical addition for turntable or tripod setups. The new watertight mesh option allows users to choose between generating sealed, 3D-printable meshes or non-watertight ones that may preserve more surface detail when masking has not been used. Continuous light mode gives control over the phone’s flashlight, allowing it to remain steadily on for low-light environments instead of flashing intermittently.

Practical relevance for production users

For professionals in postproduction, VFX, realtime graphics, or game development, the new features significantly improve mobile photogrammetry workflows. AR Guidance reduces coverage errors by providing live feedback during scanning. Object Mode’s background removal results in cleaner object isolation, an advantage when creating assets for VFX or realtime engines. Focus peaking and the interval timer support more consistent capture, particularly for stationary or rotating subjects.

The option to choose between watertight and non-watertight mesh output provides flexibility depending on end use, whether for 3D printing or game-ready asset creation. On-device mesh clean-up tools reduce early cleanup effort before exporting to desktop software. Overall, the update moves RealityScan closer to a professional capture companion for on-site or field asset collection.

Fixes, known issues and considerations

RealityScan 1.8 resolves several bugs across both iOS and Android platforms. On Android, it fixes poor image quality and large HEIF file sizes when scanning in AR mode, as well as issues with photo orientation on certain devices such as the ASUS ROG 6D Ultimate. On iOS, the update corrects missing flash indicators, projects stuck in “Processing” status, user sign-outs during scanning, and problems with sharing scans to Sketchfab when minimising the app.

Several issues remain unresolved. On Android, reprocessed models may appear cropped. On iOS, newly processed projects can still get stuck in “Processing”, the top-to-back view transition remains unsmooth, and differences persist between RAW and JPEG image outputs. Clean installs can sometimes result in a black camera view until the app is restarted.

Before deploying this release in any professional environment, users are advised to test performance and output on their specific devices and within their pipeline to confirm reliability and image consistency.

The post RealityScan Mobile 1.8 with Tools for On-the-Go Scanning first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Epic Games has officially released Unreal Engine 5.7. The update expands major systems across rendering, procedural content, materials, animation, and virtual production. It also introduces an in-Editor AI Assistant. Several features, including the Nanite Foliage rendering system, remain Experimental, while others, most notably the PCG framework and Substrate materials, are now designated production-ready. If you think “Didn’t you tell me all of this already?”: We had a Preview-News for the Preview and Teasers.

Procedural Content Generation (PCG) ready for production

Epic now considers the PCG framework suitable for use in final projects. The system allows artists to populate large environments procedurally, introduce variety, and automate level construction. Unreal Engine 5.7 adds a dedicated PCG Editor Mode, performance optimisations for GPU compute tasks, and a Procedural Vegetation Editor (PVE) for foliage placement. While PCG itself is stable, the PVE remains Experimental. Epic recommends verifying runtime performance and scalability before adoption in production environments.

Nanite Foliage enters testing

Nanite Foliage introduces a new geometry rendering pipeline for dense, animated vegetation in open-world environments. It combines Nanite Assemblies, Nanite Skinning, and Nanite Voxels to balance geometric detail with runtime efficiency. Epic lists the entire system as Experimental. Studios considering it for production should expect incomplete support for physics, collisions, and wind animation, and should validate performance on target hardware.

Substrate materials: modular and physically accurate

The Substrate framework for modular material authoring and rendering has graduated to production-ready status. It enables layering of physically accurate material types such as clear coat, metal, cloth, and skin, producing more realistic composite surfaces.

For material and look-dev teams, Substrate now replaces earlier shading models in complex asset pipelines. Epic recommends migrating projects incrementally and benchmarking shaders to ensure compatibility and consistency across devices.

Animation and virtual-production improvements

Unreal Engine 5.7 extends its animation toolkit with an overhauled Animation Mode, improved IK Retargeter and Skeletal Editor, and a new Dependency View for visualising control hierarchies.

For virtual-production users, the engine adds a Live Link Broadcast Component, allowing Unreal itself to act as a live animation source on-set. Composure, Unreal’s integrated real-time compositor, has been upgraded for improved handling of shadows, reflections, and colour accuracy during LED volume shoots. Incremental Cooking enters Beta, promising faster asset iteration for large virtual-production projects, though Epic cautions against immediate production use.

AI Assistant built into the Editor

A new AI Assistant now lives directly within the Unreal Editor. Users can ask technical questions, request code snippets in C++, or receive step-by-step instructions without leaving the viewport. The tool is designed to reduce context switching but is not intended to replace documentation or verified workflows. Its long-term reliability in multi-user pipelines remains untested, and Epic has not disclosed details about data handling or privacy.

Extended MetaHuman and cross-platform updates

The MetaHuman Creator plugin now runs on Linux and macOS, expanding platform support beyond Windows. Additional scripting APIs enhance automation and integration for character pipelines.

Here’s more about the Hairstyle generator.

Rendering, audio, and mobile improvements

Rendering updates include support for Android 15, new “Geometry Inspection” viewport modes for surface analysis, and expanded anti-aliasing and shadowing options. Nanite continues to gain broader coverage across rendering passes. Audio workflows benefit from “Audio Insights” (Beta), enhanced subtitle support, and updates to the waveform editor. These features target real-time review and iteration efficiency rather than final mixdown.

Caveats and production considerations

Despite multiple “production-ready” designations, Epic’s documentation lists numerous features as Beta or Experimental. Nanite Foliage, the Procedural Vegetation Editor, and MegaLights are explicitly unfinished. Documentation for several systems remains incomplete, and large projects upgrading from earlier versions will require shader recompilation and plugin verification. Studios are advised to test workflows in parallel, evaluate GPU and CPU loads, and confirm asset compatibility before upgrading live projects.

The post Unreal Engine 5.7: foliage, PCG and in-Editor AI first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

KitBash3D has released its DieselPunk environment kit—normally priced at US $245—for free download via Epic Games’ Fab marketplace. The offer runs until 18 November 2025. The kit targets artists building cinematic-quality, retro-futuristic environments in Unreal Engine 5, and is described by the studio as a “high-poly asset collection intended for use in cinematics within UE5.”

The DieselPunk kit channels Edwardian and interwar industrial design: cathedrals and palaces meet refineries and fuel stations. The architecture is “darkly beautiful,” filled with “greasy machinery, rugged materials, and industrial spires,” according to the official KitBash3D description.

Inside the kit

The package contains 316 unique actors built from 1,395 unique meshes, totalling approximately 17.8 million polygons. Mesh collision is enabled and automatically generated, but no LODs are included. There are 90 materials and 637 textures, all at 4K resolution. Texture and mesh quality clearly target cinematic or offline rendering rather than performance-constrained realtime scenes.

Formats provided include FBX and OBJ (on kitbash3d.com), and the Unreal build supports UE 4.26–4.27 and UE 5.0–5.4. Supported platforms are Windows, macOS, Linux, PS4, and Xbox One. The DieselPunk release date for this update is 8 November 2025; distribution is via the Fab marketplace as an “Asset Package.”

World-building details

The kit’s scope covers both civic and industrial architecture. Included are hotels, palaces, distilleries, apartments, mansions, towers, oil derricks, fuel stations, factories, pubs, stores, trams, bridges, storage tanks, walkways and chimneys. KitBash3D describes it as ideal for “retrofuturistic dystopias or grungy post-modern noir,” designed to help artists “make cohesive fuel-powered worlds.”

Licensing and restrictions

The Fab release uses the Fab Standard Licence, which allows both personal and commercial use across engines and tools, within Fab’s terms.

By contrast, KitBash3D’s own “free asset” policy states that assets downloaded via its Cargo app are for personal use only, whereas kits obtained directly from kitbash3d.com can be used commercially. Because DieselPunk is distributed through Fab, users should confirm commercial rights under Fab’s EULA before production use.

Technical notes for production artists

The assets are high-poly, built for cinematic fidelity. Artists targeting realtime or VR projects should expect to retopologise or create custom LODs. The automatic collision setup is adequate for blockouts, but may require manual refinement for gameplay environments.

Since materials are 4K, expect heavy texture memory use; production teams should test streaming and compression settings within Unreal Engine.

Why it matters

For concept, film, and cinematic environment work, this kit provides a time-saving foundation of consistent industrial architecture. The cohesive design language can accelerate set-dressing, look-dev and lighting passes for any diesel-era or noir-futuristic aesthetic.

Reminder

As always, test all assets in your pipeline before relying on them in production. Confirm file format compatibility, check materials and UVs, and validate licence terms before commercial deployment.

The post KitBash3D’s “DieselPunk” kit free till 18 Nov – retro-futurism ahoy! first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

PCG Hits Production Readiness

Unreal Engine 5.7 Preview is now available free via the Epic Games Launcher, GitHub, and Linux.
The headline feature: the Procedural Content Generation Framework (PCG) is now officially marked Production-Ready. Epic reports that GPU and game-thread optimizations have pushed PCG to nearly twice the performance vs UE 5.5. Parameter overrides for GPU nodes allow dynamic tuning; scaling and improvements make the GPU Compute path (including FastGeo use) more viable across platforms.
A new PCG editor mode adds spline drawing, paint, and volume tools. PCG Graphs may now run as standalone flows. Epic emphasises, however, that PCG is still under active development (i.e. not final in every respect).

Procedural Vegetation: Grow Inside the Editor

An Experimental Procedural Vegetation Editor plugin arrives, built on PCG nodes. It lets users grow, sculpt, and vary Nanite-ready foliage in real time inside Unreal, without hopping to external tools. You can adjust tree structure under gravity, scale branches/leaves, swap models, and export as static or skeletal meshes.
Epic plans new Quixel Megaplants assets timed to the full 5.7 launch to support this workflow.

Nanite Foliage: Dense, Animated, and Experimental

Nanite Foliage is shipping as Experimental. It’s composed of three linked systems: Nanite Assemblies (for variation/instancing), Nanite Skinning (for animation like wind), and Nanite Voxel (for preserving detail at all distances).

Epic claims these allow rendering and animating dense foliage at 60 fps on current gen hardware, while managing memory, variation cost, and visual fidelity.

Lighting Revamp via MegaLights

MegaLights advances to Beta. It now supports directional lights, Niagara particle lighting, translucency lighting, and hair grooms.
New controls let devs tune resolution scale and update rates. Noise reduction is improved to reduce visual artifacts while keeping performance manageable.

Substrate Materials Graduate to Production

Substrate materials exit beta and enter full production-readiness. This modular system replaces legacy fixed shading models with layered, flexible materials.
Unreal now supports both Adaptive GBuffer (for complex, per-pixel topology and layered closures) and Blendable GBuffer (for broader platform coverage). Developers can combine layers like metal, cloth, clear coat, and skin with physically accurate blending under the same framework.

Animation & Rigging Enhancements

UE 5.7 continues and extends 5.6’s trajectory. New Selection Sets allow animators to define groups of controls easily and share them across teams—reducing dependence on bespoke GUI Pickers.
The Animation Mode UI has been refactored: tools may be minimized to free up viewport space. The Constraint UX window merges Space, Constraints, and Snapper tools under one symbol for unified access.

On the rigging side (Experimental), Unreal adds sculpting and blend shape editing in-engine. You can create or adjust morph targets, bones, and skin weights without leaving Unreal. Physics World Collisions strengthen real-world interactions, and a new Dependency View visualises how rig data flows, aiding debugging and optimization.

Epic Developer Assistant: UI, But Not Yet Active

The UI for the forthcoming Epic Developer Assistant is included in the preview, but functionality will only activate with the full 5.7 release. The planned assistant aims to deliver context-aware help, code generation (C++) and guidance within the editor.
While it’s not fully in the preview, the tool is operational on the Epic Developer Community for Unreal Engine 5.6 users.

MetaHuman 5.7: Cross-OS, Smarter, Fancier Hair

In 5.7 Preview, MetaHuman gains important upgrades. The MetaHuman Creator plugin now supports Linux and macOS, and almost all editing/assembly operations are exposed via Python and Blueprint APIs.
Body conforming becomes pose-agnostic, using UV-space vertex correspondence for consistent rig deformation. Improvements include better calibration for stereo-camera capture data and more expressive hair control (joint-based deformation, paint-based guide control). Additional mood overrides enhance audio-driven animations.
Epic cautions that some issues remain in Preview — crashes on reassembly, texture blackouts with Substrate, blending errors in body presets, and limitations in UEFN export support. Developers are encouraged to test in separate project copies.

When Will Full 5.7 Arrive?

Epic maintains a public Unreal Engine roadmap via ProductBoard. portal.productboard.com The roadmap includes a “Forward-Looking” section marked for UE 5.7 However, Epic has not publicly committed to a firm release date for 5.7 (or its full stability). The roadmap items transition to concrete features only as the version approaches launch. Until Epic issues a formal release schedule, we only know that 5.7 remains in active development.

Early Access Means Early Risk

Epic reminds users that Preview builds are not fully quality-tested and remain unstable. Projects should be duplicated before testing. Avoid converting production assets or codebases until the final release.

Availability: Unreal Engine 5.7 Preview is free. Download via the Epic Games Launcher, GitHub, or build for Linux.

Reminder: Always validate preview features in controlled tests before integrating into production pipelines.

Unreal Engine Forums – Unreal Engine 5.7 Preview
Unreal Engine Public Roadmap

The post Unreal 5.7 Preview: PCG Grows Up, Foliage Gets Fancy first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Unreal Engine educator and plug-in creator William Faucher has launched EasyToolbag, a new in-engine menu for Unreal Engine 5 designed to simplify repetitive scene setup tasks. The add-on, compatible with versions 5.1 through 5.6, appears as a toolbar icon in the editor and provides one-click access to common scene components and viewport controls.

The tool is organised into three main panels: Create, Viewport Helpers, and EasySuite.

Click Once, Get a Scene

Under Create, EasyToolbag automates tasks that typically require multiple steps. Artists can spawn a Post-Process Volume with sensible defaults—unbound, manual exposure, and lens flares off. Other buttons generate a Level Sequence and CineCamera, create a complete Sky System (directional light, skylight, sky atmosphere, and fog included), or drop a ready-made Lighting Reference Sphere blueprint into the scene.

The latter contains four spheres—black, 18% grey, white, and chrome—standard references for lighting calibration. Layout options let users switch between vertical and horizontal placement directly in-engine.

Viewport Helpers: Smarter Screens

The Viewport Helpers section addresses real-time performance tuning. The Cap FPS toggle limits frame rate to reduce GPU load and heat. Screen Percentage and Exposure Compensation (EV) controls provide quick viewport adjustments, while a Viewport UI Type switch lets users revert to the pre-5.6 layout if the new interface feels unfamiliar. Anti-aliasing methods can be toggled directly from the same menu.

According to the official documentation, these tools aim to “improve viewport performance, reduce GPU temperatures, and improve visual quality”—a practical focus, though exact performance gains were not independently verified at press time.

EasySuite Integration

EasyToolbag also connects with Faucher’s other plug-ins sold on Fab: EasyFog, EasyRain, EasyAtmos, and EasySnow. When these are installed, EasyToolbag adds dedicated buttons for each, spawning their blueprints directly in front of the camera rather than hunting through the Content Browser. EasySnow includes both cinematic and real-time blueprints selectable from the same menu. A community Discord server supports the full “EasySuite,” offering peer assistance for installation and troubleshooting.

Under the Hood

EasyToolbag ships as a Blueprint-only add-on, with no C++ classes required. It runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux, and supports the standard Unreal Engine target platforms, including Win32. The tool is distributed through Fab, with documentation available via bit.ly/EasyToolbagDocumentation.

The pricing is exceeedingly reasonable, with a professional License going for 80€ on Fab.com As always, test new utilities in a controlled environment before integrating them into production workflows.

The post One Toolbag to Rule Your Clicks first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Epic Games has made another large-scale Unreal Engine environment available for free download. The Abandoned Cathedral pack by creator RagTarock is part of this month’s free content on Fab, Epic’s online marketplace for 3D assets. It remains free until 21 October 2025.

The set includes 210 modular meshes designed to build a derelict cathedral and its surroundings, with support for Unreal Engine 5.3 and newer. The collection is targeted at real-time artists developing games, cinematic sequences, or VFX environments.

Over 200 Assets, All Modular

The Abandoned Cathedral Environment comprises over 170 unique meshes covering architectural components, interior furniture, and exterior vegetation. Every model is optimised for game use, with collision data generated automatically. According to the Fab listing, the assets are game-ready, high-quality, and built with a focus on detail. They ship with a finished demo map, pre-lit using Lumen, Unreal Engine’s real-time global illumination system.

Technical Breakdown

The pack features five master materials and 79 material instances, along with 249 textures at a maximum resolution of 4,096 x 4,096 pixels. Poly count ranges from 8 to 3,370,000 triangles, depending on the asset. No Level of Detail (LOD) models are included. The asset supports both Nanite and Lumen, Epic’s real-time geometry and lighting systems. Lumen is enabled by default. The pack runs on Windows and is compatible with Unreal Engine versions 5.3 through 5.6. Distribution is via Fab as a standard asset package, last updated on 23 September 2025.

Licensing and Compatibility

As stated under the Fab Standard License, users may integrate the assets into any engine or tool, including commercial projects, within the restrictions outlined in the Fab EULA. The Abandoned Cathedral pack will revert to paid status after 21 October 2025, at which point the free offer expires.

Practical Note

Production teams should test the materials, Nanite settings, and Lumen performance in their own pipeline before deployment. Bous points, if you mash this Asset collection with the Washington DC collection from last week into a postapocalyptic game.

The post Free 3D Cathedral Kit Lands on Fab first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Twinmotion 2025.2 introduces Nanite, Unreal Engine’s virtualised geometry system. Nanite uses a new mesh format and rendering technology to stream only the visible parts of geometry on demand, allowing pixel-scale detail and very high object counts. Imported geometry meshes can be converted to Nanite at the time of import or afterwards via the Properties panel. A new Convert all to Nanite option has been added to the Scene graph’s contextual menu, enabling batch conversion of all geometries under a selected parent object. A dedicated Nanite triangles viewport mode displays Nanite mesh detail directly in the viewport. This can be enabled through the View mode icon.

In practice, this allows Twinmotion users to import high-resolution models from CAD, scan data, or sculpting applications without a pre-optimisation pass. According to Epic, the system is capable of handling datasets with hundreds of millions or even billions of polygons while retaining real-time responsiveness. This opens doors for users in architecture or automotive, where models often contain overwhelming detail at the component level, from bolts in a car chassis to screws in a façade system.

The implication is that asset fidelity is no longer artificially constrained at the import stage. However, Nanite’s real-world performance is always hardware dependent. While Epic emphasises “real-time performance,” users should expect performance scaling based on GPU capability, VRAM, and I/O throughput. Twinmotion’s positioning of Nanite as “removing the need to optimise” should be read literally only in terms of workflow steps, not in terms of performance costs. Heavy assets still consume resources.

Parallax Windows

Twinmotion 2025.2 includes a new Parallax Windows library. This library provides 32 assets, including office, residential, and gym interiors, alongside 10 retail interiors developed with wParallax.

These parallax windows can be dropped into scenes to simulate interior spaces without modelling and furnishing every room. Properties include night cycle simulation with randomised lighting, glass overlay simulation for added realism, and controls for mirroring and dual-sided occlusion.

3D Grass Material

The update adds a new 3D Grass Material with several enhancements. An Accent meshes section introduces small vegetation elements that break up uniform grass distribution and create a more natural appearance. A new Presets section contains 15 curated setups combining grass types, accent meshes, and parameter settings. Colour blending has been reworked, and a Dryness parameter allows application of a dry, sun-scorched effect across grass surfaces.

Installer Size Reduction and On-demand Content

The Twinmotion installer has been reduced in size by moving content to cloud storage. This change simplifies network deployment and makes distribution lighter. A new content-on-demand system allows users to download legacy content as needed. A Download icon in the Library categories lets users fetch entire categories. Content packs can also be downloaded from the Library packs tab of the Home panel. Epic now distinguishes between a Standard Library Pack, containing the full drag-and-drop asset collection, and a lighter Starter Library Pack for demos or quick installs.

Fog Cards

Twinmotion 2025.2 introduces Fog Cards into the VFX category. These are lightweight particle cards designed to add fog layers to a scene. Seventeen Fog Card assets are included. They can be scaled, tinted, and given emissive colours. A set of wind-reactive properties enables fog cards to move with global wind or at custom speed and direction. Fog cards can be combined with existing fog features, such as the global Ambience > Env > Fog or smaller fog banks in Library > Objects > VFX > Fog.

Camera Synchronisation

Twinmotion 2025.2 adds Camera Synchronisation with DCC applications. Through Direct Link or Datasmith imports, both active viewport cameras and saved DCC camera views can be aligned with the Twinmotion viewport camera. A new Camera Sync icon appears in the viewport when a Direct Link or Datasmith connection is active. This opens a user interface with options to enable or disable sync, and to select which DCC view to synchronise.

Static Motion Blur

A new Static Motion Blur system is included. Two tools, Linear Blur and Circular Blur, are available in the Tools > Static motion blur section of the Library.

When a static mesh is made a child of one of these tools in the Scene graph, the chosen blur effect is applied. This allows simulation of motion in still renders, such as wheel rotation on a static vehicle or directional blur on crowds.

Virtual Camera (VCam)

Twinmotion 2025.2 connects with the Unreal VCam app on Android and iOS. This allows a handheld device to control a live camera in Twinmotion scenes. The system supports placement of live cameras and real-time control of focal length, focus, exposure, and navigation settings. Streaming quality can be configured in the Preferences panel.

Exploder

The update introduces Exploder as a new type of Animator tool. Exploders create exploded view animations by separating the parts of an object in space and optionally reassembling them. Exploder Animators include a Shape parameter (sphere, cylinder, or plane) to define movement direction. Per-object settings for Timing and Origin allow staggered offsets and pivot controls. Exploders affect only their direct children in the Scene graph. The Library includes Exploder tool presets, such as Gentle Push, Deconstruct, Inflate, Ring Peel, Pressurize, Plan Split, and Stack Reassemble. These presets can be customised and saved as new versions.

Static and Real-time Animations in Images and Panoramas

Twinmotion 2025.2 introduces a global Static / Real time animation toggle for images and panoramas. This allows creators to pause animations at a specific frame when rendering stills or panoramas, rather than being restricted to real-time playback.

Sony Spatial Reality Display Support

Configuration triggers are now supported on the Sony Spatial Reality Display (SRD). This enables switching between configuration states directly on the SRD device.

Custom LUT Support

Twinmotion 2025.2 adds support for custom LUTs (lookup tables) in .cube format. LUTs can be imported into the new LUT category under the FX tab of the Ambience panel.

Users can apply LUTs from libraries or create them externally in image editing software such as Photoshop.

Advanced Post-process Effects

The FX tab filter system has been redesigned. Filters are now grouped under an Effects category with new settings for sketch-style visuals. Options include hatching, Kuwahara filtering, and pen-style outlines. Parameters are fully exposed, allowing customisation and saving of filter presets.

Conclusion

Twinmotion 2025.2 is a major release, expanding across geometry handling, materials, animation, post-processing, and interoperability. With features such as Nanite integration, Parallax Windows, Fog Cards, Exploder Animators, VCam support, custom LUTs, and mesh tessellation, this update covers both headline capabilities and smaller workflow refinements. Studios should review these features against their production needs before integrating them into pipelines.

The post Nanite marches in: Twinmotion 2025.2 update first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Jürgen Firsching.

Woods, but digital

Want to spend some time in the quiet woods and escape the bustle of the city? Epic Games now offers an alternative: 156 digital meshes for building a rural retreat in Unreal Engine. The Modular Rural Cabin pack by Dutch environment artist Maarten Hof is available on Fab for free until 7 October 2025.

What’s in the pack

The assets cover wooden cabins with corrugated iron roofing, furniture, clutter props such as oil drums and tyres, and vegetation including a conifer tree. Six demo scenes are included to show possible layouts. The meshes come with eight customisable master materials, and texture resolution goes up to 2,048 x 2,048 pixels. Lightmaps are baked in, but LODs are missing, which could be relevant for performance-sensitive projects.

From digital cabins to digital forests

The pack comes from Maarten Hof, whose ArtStation portfolio showcases atmospheric forests, modular buildings and moody woodland environments. The assets echo his trademark style: a carefully balanced mix of architectural detail and slightly eerie forest quiet, exactly the kind of place you might escape to if Slack notifications didn’t have a way of following you into the trees.

Technical notes for the cautious

According to the official Fab listing, the assets are designed for “realistic AAA quality visuals, style, and budget.” The kit is provided in Unreal Engine format, supports UE4.22+ and UE5.0+, and stated explicitly was not generated with AI. The package currently holds a 4.8-star rating from 28 reviews on Fab. Distribution follows the Fab Standard Licence, which permits commercial use across engines and tools, subject to the Fab EULA.

Test before production

As with all free marketplace downloads, artists should test the pack in their own pipelines before adopting it for actual production work.

The post Unreal Cabin Fever: 156 Free Assets for UE Users first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Epic Games’ official Unreal Engine 5.7 roadmap lists features under development, flagged either as experimental, planned, or in progress. Epic explicitly notes that roadmap items are not guaranteed for final release, and specifications may change. What follows are the features as listed by Epic, with technical implications described only where the roadmap itself provides detail.

Nanite Foliage Skinning

Epic’s roadmap lists Nanite foliage skinning (experimental) as part of the 5.7 cycle. The description reads: “Support for skinned animation on Nanite meshes, targeting deformable foliage assets.” Technically, this means skeletal deformation can be applied to Nanite-rendered meshes. In practical terms, foliage such as trees, bushes, and plants can now bend or sway while still rendered through Nanite’s virtualised micro-polygon system.

Epic labels the feature experimental. The roadmap does not specify performance costs on large foliage sets, nor does it explain how collisions or physics will be processed on skinned Nanite meshes. It is also unclear whether foliage interaction will support runtime forces such as wind or player contact, or whether it will be limited to authored skeletal animations. The division of labour between GPU and CPU during skinning operations is likewise not addressed. In other words, the roadmap confirms intent but does not provide implementation data, benchmarks, or sample assets. Until Epic publishes release notes or project examples, the system should be treated strictly as a test feature.

Procedural Content Generation (PCG)

The roadmap lists further PCG Graph improvements, but again provides only high-level notes. It mentions performance optimisations for large graphs, scalability improvements for complex scenes, and unspecified new node functionality. The PCG Graph will therefore see expanded tool coverage, though Epic does not provide any public node list, API changes, or user interface details.

Without supporting documentation, it remains uncertain whether these optimisations will impact runtime evaluation, editor evaluation, or both. No data is provided on memory usage, multithreading behaviour, or handling of collision data. The entry confirms that Epic continues to iterate on PCG, but no quantifiable detail is currently available.

Editor Improvements

Several roadmap entries fall under the heading of editor usability. Epic indicates that work is underway on viewport responsiveness under heavy scene complexity, faster asset loading inside the content browser, and adjustments to the handling of user interface layouts. These items are all listed as “in development” and are not accompanied by screenshots or changelogs.

Animation and Rigging

The roadmap also includes several animation workflow enhancements. Epic notes extensions to Control Rig workflows, updates to Sequencer, and further refinements to animation retargeting. Each of these entries is marked as “work in progress.”

No additional information is given about whether the changes will impact realtime rig evaluation speed, deformation accuracy, or interoperability with external animation pipelines. There is no detail about whether Sequencer improvements involve caching performance, timeline interactivity, or extended export formats. Likewise, retargeting updates are flagged without technical breakdown. The entries confirm active development in the animation and rigging space but do not provide implementation detail.

Rendering

Rendering updates are listed under 5.7, but the roadmap remains sparse on specifics. Epic confirms ongoing work on Lumen, improvements to Virtual Shadow Maps (VSM), and efforts to improve shader compilation efficiency. These items are described only as “in development.”

The roadmap does not indicate whether the Lumen work targets GPU memory usage, light transport artefacts, or platform compatibility. Similarly, it does not explain whether the VSM refinements relate to aliasing control, shadow cascade transitions, or long-distance artefacts. Shader compilation efficiency is referenced, but with no mention of distributed build support, caching mechanisms, or per-platform results. Without measurable data, the rendering entries remain directional rather than technical.

Miscellaneous but Useful

Several smaller items appear on the roadmap that, while not as flashy as Nanite foliage or Lumen updates, will have tangible workflow benefits. The Media Viewer (Beta) is designed to allow previewing of media assets inside the editor itself. In practice, it reduces the constant need to switch to external tools just to confirm what a clip looks like. Think of it as fewer alt-tabs to VLC.

The Chaos Visual Debugger will provide visualisation tools for the Chaos physics engine. Instead of guessing why your ragdoll exploded or your fracture simulation folded in half, you’ll actually see what the solver is calculating. This means more cubes falling over, this time for science.

The Live Link Hub consolidates device connections for motion capture and animation input. By centralising connections, it removes the need for manually juggling multiple plugin panels. It’s essentially speed dating for rigs and trackers—everyone meets in one place.

Finally, EXR Metadata per Render Layer gives rendered EXRs the ability to carry metadata with each individual layer. This is a small but meaningful step for compositors: it means fewer mysteries about which pass is which when “beauty_pass_37.exr” shows up in the comp.

Documentation and Transparency

A persistent theme across the 5.7 roadmap is brevity. Entries are limited to one or two lines, with no linked technical notes, screenshots, or change logs. This format provides visibility into Epic’s current areas of focus but leaves production teams without actionable information for pipeline planning.

Documentation for Unreal Engine has historically lagged behind public releases, and if 5.7 follows the same pattern, details may only become available after the features ship. Until Epic releases formal documentation and benchmarks, all roadmap features should be considered provisional.

Conclusion: Experiments, Not Guarantees

Unreal Engine 5.7, as described in Epic’s official roadmap, is primarily a collection of experiments and development goals. The most specific entry, Nanite foliage skinning, extends Nanite into deformable geometry for the first time, but Epic itself marks it experimental and provides no data on stability, memory overhead, or collision handling.

Other roadmap items, including PCG optimisations, editor usability changes, animation workflow extensions, rendering refinements, and smaller quality-of-life features, remain placeholders. The descriptions confirm that development is active but stop short of offering implementation detail.

For production artists, the conclusion is clear. Unreal Engine 5.7 is not yet a release to plan pipelines around. Every feature must be tested in controlled conditions before it can be considered safe for client-facing work. As always, Epic’s roadmap is a guide to areas of development, not a guarantee of final functionality.

The post Unreal Engine 5.7: Experimental Tech, Measured Expectations first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Epic Games has released a new Sports Broadcast | Motion Design Sample, available free on the Fab marketplace. Built in collaboration with Capacity Studios, the package provides broadcast artists with a complete set of sports graphics assets designed entirely with Unreal Engine’s Motion Design toolset.

The release is positioned as both a practical starter kit and a guided showcase of Motion Design workflows inside Unreal Engine.

What’s in the Box

Epic lists more than 40 animated, rigged, and pre-designed elements. These include templates for scoreboards, player line-ups, match statistics, and other staples of sports broadcasting. All are fully rigged and built to demonstrate reusable setups rather than complex, one-off solutions.

According to Epic, the assets avoid heavy reliance on Blueprints or advanced scripting. The stated goal is to keep the learning curve low (relativly speaking of course. We are still comple neophytes in that thing!) and highlight the Motion Design system itself.

Motion Design Features in Action

The sample makes use of a wide range of Motion Design features now embedded in Unreal Engine’s core. Epic lists:

• Transition Logic
• Rundown
• Cloners and Effectors
• Remote Control
• Material Designer
• Masking
• Animators and Modifiers
• Motion Design’s Custom Outliner

Each of these features is applied in context, so broadcast artists can see real-world usage rather than abstract demos.

Engine Version and Update Path

This initial release is built in Unreal Engine 5.6.1. Epic has confirmed a Unreal Engine 5.7 version is planned. That update will incorporate functionality and refinements developed as a result of building this sample. No release date for the 5.7 version was given.

Teaching by Example

The package is not only about graphics delivery but also functions as a structured tutorial. Because it sticks to core Motion Design features, it offers an accessible entry point for those new to Unreal’s procedural motion workflows. Artists can dissect and repurpose the included rigs without first needing extensive Blueprint experience.

Epic describes the sample as a way to “jumpstart” projects. The implication is that the company continues to court not just game developers and VFX teams, but also broadcast graphics departments.

A Reminder for Production Use

As always, new samples and assets should be tested carefully in actual production environments before deployment. Stability, integration into existing broadcast pipelines, and rendering performance under real-world conditions were not independently verified at press time.

The post Ready-Made Hype: Epic Ships Free Sports Broadcast Motion Design Sample first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Epic Games has released MetaHuman for Houdini, a free collection of Houdini Digital Assets (HDAs) designed to streamline MetaHuman workflows inside SideFX Houdini. The add‑on allows artists to assemble a rigged, textured MetaHuman character using the MetaHuman Character Rig HDA, provided the character is exported from Unreal Engine via the DCC Export pipeline. The result: a ready‑to‑animate model within Houdini.

The package supports procedural hairstyling directly on MetaHuman head geometry—artists can craft complex hairstyles such as ponytails, knots, buns, braids, and donuts by leveraging Houdini’s procedural toolset.

Strand-Based Grooming and Unreal Export via Alembic

The add‑on includes tools for grooming within Houdini using strand-based workflows, designed to be MetaHuman‑compatible. Once styled, these grooms can be exported via the Alembic (.abc) format for use in Unreal Engine. The integration offers a structured procedural workflow to create and export hair grooms without leaving Houdini.

Availability, Installation, and Metadata

The tool is free and available through Epic’s Fab marketplace. The listing includes essential metadata such as “Not Mature” age rating, and indicates promotional content. It clarifies that AI use is not allowed, and that the content was not generated via AI.

Installation instructions and technical details are available in accompanying documentation on Fab, though specific versions of Houdini supported are not detailed in that listing.

What This Means for Production Pipelines

For compositors, riggers, grooming artists, animators, and technical directors, MetaHuman for Houdini offers a notable reduction in software round‑trips. The combination of fully rigged rigs, procedural hair workflows, and lockdown export to Unreal Engine via Alembic streamlines digital‑human workflows.

That said, production teams should test thoroughly in their own environments to confirm compatibility and performance before adopting the tool in live pipelines. This applies especially to aspects like grooming fidelity, export integrity, and automation reliability—none of which are independently verified at this time.

The post MetaHuman Meets Houdini first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Cleaning out the junk in the cellar or the back room of the studio has never been easier—at least digitally. Epic Games is giving away ScansMatter’s Warehouse Environment asset pack via the Fab marketplace until 26 August 2025.

The ScansMatter Warehouse contains 165 modular, production-quality 3D assets ranging from full building structures and racking systems to pallets, crates, drums, forklifts and hand carts. No idea if you can certify on that forklift, but … that’s a different topic. Designed for high-end game, cinematic, and VFX workflows, all assets are fully optimised for Unreal Engine 5.1+ with Nanite geometry streaming and Lumen lighting. Textures are physically-based (PBR) at up to 4096×4096px resolution.

The Fab Standard licence allows use in “any engine or tool”, including commercial projects, though users must still comply with Fab’s EULA.

About the maker

ScansMatter is a specialised 3D-asset provider and outsourcing studio, delivering premium modular environments, props, materials, and complete 3D scenes. Its work is aimed at real-time games, cinematics, advertising, architectural visualisation, and other content-driven industries.

The Fab listing for this Warehouse Environment highlights additional features: an advanced master material system with controls for surface variation, dust, and roughness; blueprint-based lighting; a fully playable demo scene; ray-traced plastic materials (toggleable); and full fallback support for non-Nanite or non-Lumen projects. Assets are modular, enabling flexible assembly through blueprints, and performance is documented, on an RTX 3090 the demo scene runs at roughly 40–50 fps. The package includes documentation and direct support via ScansMatter’s Discord server.

Why production artists might care

For environment artists, art directors, or anyone tasked with building an industrial backdrop in a hurry, the pack offers a ready-to-use, consistent set of assets that can be dropped straight into a scene or tweaked for custom layouts. The Nanite and Lumen setup ensures fidelity for both real-time and cinematic work, while the inclusion of blueprint-based lighting and modular building components makes scene iteration straightforward.

Performance optimisation and fallback compatibility mean the pack can slot into a range of hardware setups without excessive pipeline changes. The offer’s time-limit—free only until 26 August 2025—gives teams a short window to grab it before it returns to its standard Fab price.

A reminder before you roll in the forklifts

As with any third-party resource, review the Fab Standard licence carefully before deploying in production. Test assets thoroughly in your target pipeline to verify performance, compatibility, and visual match before committing them to a live project.

The post Cleaning out the studio back room? The ScansMatter warehouse kit might help first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.