MetaHuman Crowds is built on top of the MetaHuman Collections system. You set up a Collection with a crowd-specific pipeline, create Instances to define the appearance of each crowd member, then use the Mass Entity framework to spawn and manage them in a level.
Rendering large numbers of MetaHuman characters in a scene is resource-intensive. The Crowd system handles LOD switching and uses optimized mesh representations at a distance, so you can achieve dense crowds without exceeding your performance budget.
What You Need
Setting up a MetaHuman crowd requires the following:
MetaHuman Characters - source characters whose faces, bodies, and skin settings define the appearance of your crowd members.
MetaHuman-compatible Groom assets - hairstyles, eyebrows, eyelashes, and optionally beards and mustaches.
MetaHuman-compatible clothing assets - Chaos Outfit or Skeletal Mesh assets for garments and shoes.
A MetaHuman Collection using the Crowd Pipeline, populated with the above items.
MetaHuman Instances - one for each distinct crowd character appearance, each referencing the Collection.
A Mass Entity Config - asset that defines how crowd entities are spawned, visualized, and animated.
A Mass Spawner - actor placed in a level to spawn the crowd.
Required Plugin
Enable the MetaHuman Crowd plugin before opening the sample. Go to Edit > Plugins, search for MetaHuman Crowd, and check the Enabled box. Restart the editor when prompted.
Get Started With Sample Content
The MetaHuman Crowd Sample, available on Fab, gives you a working starting point before you set up your own crowd from scratch. See MetaHuman Crowd Sample Tutorial for a step-by-step walkthrough of downloading, running, and migrating the sample assets into your own project.
The sample's preset Collections and Instances are a useful reference. Open them in the Collection Editor to see how the slots are configured before building your own.
