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
Before you begin, use the Plugins window (Edit > Plugins) to enable the MetaHuman Crowd plugin in your project.
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. It includes:
A fully working crowd scenario map you can open and run immediately.
A collection of MetaHuman-compatible hairstyles, clothing, and other assets ready to add to a Collection.
Preset Collections and Instances you can use as-is or modify for your project.
If you are new to MetaHuman Crowds, use the sample content to familiarize yourself with the system before building your own setup.
Download and Migrate the Sample Content
Open the Fab tab in the Content Browser.
Search for MetaHuman Crowd Sample and download it. The content is added to your project as the MetaHuman Crowd Content plugin.
In the Content Browser, open the MetaHuman Crowd Content plugin folder.
Locate the StarterKit_MigrateMe folder.
Right-click the StarterKit_MigrateMe folder and select Migrate to copy its assets into your project's Content folder.
Once the assets are in your project, right-click in the Content Browser and create a new MetaHuman Collection. From this point, follow Create a Collection. The migrated assets are ready to populate your Collection's slots.
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.
