Pipeline Type
Controls which MetaHuman Creator pipeline is used for the assembly step.
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Cinematic | Full Unreal Engine pipeline. Full LOD structure, granular skin material LOD options, largest asset footprint. Use for pre-rendered cinematics. |
| Optimized | Baked textures, practical LOD structure. Best for real-time games and the face optimization workflows. |
| UEFN | Exports in a format compatible with Unreal Editor for Fortnite. |
| DCC | Writes DNA and texture files directly to a disk folder instead of the Content Browser. Use when exporting for Blender, Maya, or other DCC applications. |
Tip
For the Face Optimizer and ARKit 52 workflow, use Optimized. It produces the face mesh LODs you need at practical triangle counts. Cinematic can work too but produces a heavier asset with more LODs and a larger project footprint.
Quality Level
Controls the mesh density and LOD structure of the assembled output. Only applies to the Optimized and UEFN pipelines.
| Option | Notes |
|---|---|
| Low | Lowest vertex count. Suitable for background characters. |
| Medium | Moderate vertex count. |
| High | Good balance of quality and performance. At Optimized/High, LOD 1 is the ~6700 triangles sweet spot for morph target workflows. |
Note
The quality dropdown is greyed out when Pipeline Type is set to Cinematic or DCC, because maximum quality is selected by the pipeline itself.
For a full breakdown of triangle counts per LOD per quality level, see Preparing Your MetaHuman.
Rig Type
Controls whether corrective blendshapes are included on top of the skeletal rig.
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Joints Only | Full MetaHuman facial rig with bones and DNA deformation, no corrective blendshapes. Recommended for Optimized and High quality workflows. |
| Full Rig | Same as Joints Only, plus a set of small corrective blendshapes that apply subtle micro-expression adjustments on top of the rig deformation. Only present on Cinematic pipeline at LOD 0. |
Note
The corrective blendshapes in Full Rig are not the 52 ARKit blendshapes. Those are driven by the bone rig, which is present in both options. Full Rig adds a separate, smaller set of corrective shapes for subtle expression refinement. Since these shapes only exist at Cinematic LOD 0, they have no practical effect on Optimized or High quality assemblies. Joints Only is enough for most workflows.
Texture Resolution
Controls two things at once: the resolution downloaded from the MetaHuman service, and the final baked sizes written into the assembled output.
The assembler applies per-texture size overrides before the build, so the result is not a flat "everything 4K" output. Primary skin maps (normal, base color, SRMF) scale with your chosen tier, while secondary maps like scatter textures and eye maps are kept at lower resolutions regardless. This mirrors how the Cinematic pipeline handles textures natively and avoids wasting VRAM on maps that don't benefit from higher resolution.
| Option | Download | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1K | 2K | Good for background characters and memory-constrained situations. |
| 2K | 2K | Recommended for most projects. Good balance of quality and VRAM usage. |
| 4K | 4K | High quality. Use for close-up dialogue and cinematics. Significantly larger download and higher VRAM usage. |
| 8K | 8K | Overkill even for pre-rendered cinematics. |
Textures are downloaded from the Fab/MetaHuman service once per character. If the textures were already downloaded in a previous run, this step completes quickly.
Note
Baking overrides apply to Cinematic, Optimized, and UEFN pipelines. The DCC pipeline writes raw texture files directly to disk and is not affected.
Output Settings
Keep Mesh Only
When enabled, the assembler extracts just the face mesh from the full assembled output, saves it to the Face Mesh Folder, and deletes everything else. This is the recommended mode for the Face Optimizer and ARKit workflows: you get only the asset you need without the full character assembly taking up content browser space.
When disabled, the full assembled character is kept and placed in the Full Output Folder.
Face Mesh Folder
Content Browser path where the extracted face mesh is saved when Keep Mesh Only is on.
Default: /Game/MetaHumans/Creator/FaceMeshes
The mesh is named SKM_<CharacterName>_FaceMesh. If an asset with that name already exists, the Overwrite Existing setting controls what happens.
Full Output Folder
Content Browser path where the full assembled character folder is placed when Keep Mesh Only is off. Leave empty to use the MetaHuman Creator's default output location.
Default: /Game/MetaHumans/Creator
Overwrite Existing
Controls what happens when an asset already exists at the output destination.
- On: the existing asset is overwritten.
- Off (default): the conflicting assets are appended with a "_V1" suffix (e.g.
SKM_Sophia_FaceMesh_V1)
DCC Disk Path
A filesystem path (not a Content Browser path) for DNA and texture file output when Pipeline Type is set to DCC. Has no effect for any other pipeline type.
Example: C:\Export\MetaHumans
Full Settings Reference
| Field | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Pipeline Type | Cinematic | Cinematic, Optimized, UEFN, or DCC |
| Quality Level | High | Low, Medium, or High (greyed out for Cinematic and DCC pipelines) |
| Rig Type | Full Rig | Joints Only (recommended) or Full Rig (corrective blendshapes, Cinematic LOD 0 only) |
| Texture Resolution | 4K | 1K, 2K, 4K, or 8K |
| Keep Mesh Only | Off | Extract face mesh and delete the rest of the assembly |
| Face Mesh Folder | /Game/MetaHumans/Creator/FaceMeshes |
Destination for the extracted face mesh |
| Full Output Folder | /Game/MetaHumans/Creator |
Destination for the full character assembly |
| Overwrite Existing | Off | Overwrite conflicts vs. version them to a Conflicts/ subfolder |
| DCC Disk Path | (empty) | Disk path for DCC pipeline output only |