Achieving Realistic Cross-Platform Characters: A UE5 Pipeline Approach | Unreal Fest Chicago 2026

This session recorded at Unreal Fest Chicago 2026 explores Archosaur Games’ comprehensive UE5 pipeline for developing realistically stylized cross-platform characters.

The studio shares a practical strategy addressing core artistic and technical challenges across mobile and PC platforms. The presentation begins with the studio’s evolution from UE4 to UE5, detailing foundational render pipeline upgrades. Chief Artist Bing Liu traces the visual trajectory from fashion game ‘Life Makeover’ to their next-gen character titles, outlining the art and technology enabling this ascent.

A central focus is next-generation character dynamics, covering how the studio customizes the MetaHuman framework. Liu will delve into tackling complex movement-driven issues like cloth wrinkling and muscle deformation, including Archosaur’s analysis of ML and SSDR techniques and their final technical rationale.

Liu also shows how UE5’s Substrate system is key to the studio’s material workflow, enabling high-fidelity surfaces. Finally, he touches on challenges with city lighting using MegaLights and Archosaur’s experiments for performant mobile ray tracing. This session aims to guide teams in mastering UE5 character development with practical insights.

Find out more about using Unreal Engine to develop games here: unrealengine.com/uses/games

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