What is MetaHuman Optimizer?
MetaHuman Optimizer is an Unreal Engine 5.7 editor plugin that solves a fundamental performance problem with MetaHuman characters: their faces are far too expensive for most games and runtime projects.
This plugin gives you a streamlined set of tools to convert MetaHuman faces from their default bone-driven rig into lightweight, morph-target-only meshes driven by the 52 standard ARKit blendshapes, the same system used by Apple's ARKit facial capture.
The Problem
Out of the box, a MetaHuman face is a complex system:
- 300+ bones in the facial rig
- Control rigs layered on top
- DNA deformation for high-fidelity muscle simulation
- Corrective morph targets driven at runtime by the rig
This is computationally expensive. Running Live Link facial capture on even one MetaHuman character can cost up to 20FPS. Scale that to multiple characters in a multiplayer game, a VR experience, or a mobile project, and it quickly becomes unworkable.
The Solution
MetaHuman Optimizer converts that expensive bone rig into 52 clean ARKit morph targets (one per facial expression). The resulting mesh:
- Has zero face bones, zero control rigs, and zero DNA overhead at runtime
- Is fully compatible with ARKit Live Link facial capture out of the box
- Looks visually near identical to the original
- Can be driven by any animation system that writes morph target weights
Plugin Tabs at a Glance
The plugin window has four tabs, each covering a distinct step of the workflow:
| Tab | What it does |
|---|---|
| Face Optimizer | Build morph-target-only face meshes entirely inside Unreal Engine, and maintain spine/neck bone compatibility with the MetaHuman skeleton. The fastest path to an optimized face. |
| ARKit 52 | Export all 52 ARKit facial poses as individual OBJ files. The starting point for the Blender round-trip when you want to sculpt or customize the mesh or its rig. |
| Auto Assembler | Batch-process multiple MetaHuman characters through the full rig → download textures → build → assemble pipeline in one hands-off run. |
| Groom Bindings | Batch create hundreds groom asset bindings in one go! Attach all your hair, eyebrows, beards etc to all of your optimized character face meshes. This includes an offset option in case you moved your head to adapt it to a new body in blender. |
Note
The Face Optimizer tab and the ARKit 52 + Blender round-trip are two alternative paths to the same goal: a morph-target face. Face Optimizer is faster and fully in-engine. The Blender round-trip takes more steps but lets you sculpt and customize the mesh freely. See the Face Optimizer and ARKit Exporter sections for a full comparison.