The MetaHuman Crowds Sample Project is a downloadable project from Fab that gives you a fully working crowd scene to explore before building your own. It includes a playable demo map, preset Collections and Instances, and the source assets needed to get started.
Use it to familiarize yourself with how the system fits together, or migrate the sample assets into your existing project as a starting point for your own crowd.
Step 1: Enable Plugins and Engine Content in the Content Drawer
The sample assets are stored in the Plugins folder. You need to make Plugin Content visible in the Content Browser before you can access them.
In the Content Browser, click the Settings button (gear icon) in the top-right corner.
Enable Plugin Content.
Enable Engine Content.
Step 2: Download the Sample From Fab
Go to the MetaHuman Crowd Sample listing on Fab.
Click Add to Project to download the plugin. The content is added as the MetaHumanCrowdContent plugin and appears in your Content Browser under Plugins.
The plugin assets will download and install into your Project.
Restart the editor when prompted.
Step 3: Load the Demo Map
In the Content Browser, navigate to Plugins > MetaHumanCrowdContent.
Double-click MAP_Plaza to load it.
Press Play in Editor to run the crowd.
You should see MetaHuman characters spawning and moving through the scene. Characters close to the camera render as full MetaHuman actors. As distance increases, they transition to lightweight instanced meshes, then stop rendering beyond the max render distance. This LOD behavior is what makes large crowd counts possible without exceeding your performance budget.
Move the camera toward and away from the crowd to observe LOD transitions in real time.
Step 4: View the Collection
The sample includes a preset MetaHuman Collection built on the Crowd Pipeline. Open it to see how source assets are organized before you build your own.
In the Content Browser, navigate to Plugins > MetaHumanCrowdContent.
Double-click the CrowdCollection to open it in the Collection Editor.
Review the slots in the Items panel - Head, Body, Hair, Eyebrows, Top Garment, Bottom Garment, and Shoes - and note which assets are assigned to each.
The more items added to each slot, the more visual variety the crowd can have. The sample Collection is a useful reference for how many assets to target when building your own.
Do not click Apply in the sample Collection unless you intend to rebuild it. The sample assets are already built and ready to use.
Step 5: View the Instances
Each MetaHuman Instance defines one distinct crowd character appearance - a specific combination of head, body, hair, grooms, and clothing drawn from the Collection.
In the Content Browser, navigate to Plugins > MetaHumanCrowdContent > Instances.
Open any Instance to inspect its slot selections and Instance Parameters (such as hair color and clothing tint).
The sample Instances show how to create variety across a crowd without requiring unique MetaHuman characters for every appearance. Adjusting Instance Parameters rather than adding entirely new source characters is the most efficient way to expand variety.
Step 6: View the Mass Entity Config
The Mass Entity Config tells the Mass framework what the crowd looks like and how it behaves at each LOD level.
In the Content Browser, navigate to Plugins > MetaHuman Crowd Content > AI.
Double-click DA_MHMassCrowdConfig_Base to open the Mass Entity Config asset.
Locate the MetaHuman Crowd Visualization trait and review its key properties:
Property | What to look at |
Character Instances | The list of MetaHuman Instances assigned to this crowd. |
High-Res Template Actor | The actor Blueprint used for close-range characters. |
Parent Anim Sequence | The animation data driving distant instanced characters. |
LOD Params | Distance thresholds and max character counts at each LOD level. |
Animation Scalability | Settings that prevent visible lockstep in looping distant crowds. |
Step 7: Migrate the Sample Assets to Your Project
The StarterKit_MigrateMe folder contains the source assets - MetaHuman characters, grooms, and clothing - you need to build your own crowd Collection. Migrate these into your project.
In the Content Browser, navigate to the Plugins > MetaHumanCrowdContent.
Right-click the StarterKit_MigrateMe folder and select Migrate.
In the Asset Report dialog, confirm all elements are selected, then click OK.
When prompted, select the Content folder of the project you want to migrate to.
The assets are copied into your project's Content folder and are ready to use in a new Collection.
Step 8: Add a Collection to Your Project
Right-click in the Content Browser and select MetaHuman > MetaHuman Collection to create a new Collection asset.
Open the Collection. In the Details panel, set the Pipeline to BP_CrowdPipeline.
In the Details panel, assign the AnimConfig_ForCollection to the Animation Pipeline.
In the Items panel, drag your wardrobe assets from the migrated StarterKit_MigrateMe content into the appropriate slots. MetaHuman Characters, Grooms, and clothing items.
Click Apply in the toolbar to build the Collection. The pipeline processes every item and generates crowd-optimized assets.
The sample content includes preset Collections you can open in the Collection Editor to see how slots are configured before building your own.
Step 9: Create Instances
Right-click the Collection in the Content Browser and select Create New Instance. Each Instance represents one distinct crowd character appearance. A specific combination of head, hair, and clothing selected from the Collection.
Create one Instance for each appearance variation you want in your crowd. In each Instance, double-click items in the Items panel to select the character, hair, and clothing for that appearance.
Step 10: Set up the Mass Spawner
In the Content Browser, navigate to Content > StarterKit_MigrateMe.
Double-click MassSpawnerConfig_AddYourInstancesHere to open it.
In the MetaHuman Crowd Visualization trait, locate the Character Instances array and add each Instance you created.
You can drag and drop multiple Instances into the Character Instances array at once.
In the Content Browser, navigate to Engine > Plugins > MetaHuman Crowd C++ Classes > MetaHumanCrowd > Private > Mass and drag the MetaHumanMassSpawner into your level.
Add a Nav Mesh Bounds Volume around the Mass Spawner walkable area.
