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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Unreal Engine is a complete suite of creation tools for game development, architectural and automotive visualization, linear film and television content creation, broadcast and live event production, training and simulation, and other real-time applications.

Unreal Engine is free to download, and comes fully loaded and production-ready out of the box, with every feature and full source code access included.

Under the standard EULA, Unreal Engine is free to use for learning, and for developing internal projects; it also enables you to distribute many commercial projects without paying any fees to Epic Games, including custom projects delivered to clients, linear content (such as films and television shows) and any product that earns no revenue or whose revenue falls below the royalty threshold. 

A 5% royalty is due only if you are distributing an off-the-shelf product that incorporates Unreal Engine code (such as a game). Provided that you notify us on time using the Release Form, you will only owe royalties once the lifetime gross revenue from that product exceeds $1 million USD; in other words, the first $1 million will be royalty-exempt.

There are also options for custom licenses. Contact us for more information.

Get Unreal Engine here, and access all engine features, the full suite of integrated tools, and the C++ source code for the entire engine. You’ll find documentation, tutorials, and support resources, plus tons of free content, including templates, samples, and complete projects to quickly get you on your way to building anything you want!

Epic regularly releases new versions which include updates, improved features, community contributions, and bug fixes. We also share live changes to source code through GitHub.

General information
Unreal Engine 5 (UE5)
Releasing products
Source code
Epic MegaGrants
Educational use
MetaHuman

General information

The Unreal Engine End User License Agreement is the legal document that governs your use of the Unreal Engine and describes your rights and obligations with respect to the projects you create using the engine.

This license is free to use for learning, and for developing internal projects; it also enables you to distribute many commercial projects without paying any fees to Epic Games, including custom projects delivered to clients, linear content (such as films and television shows) and any product that earns no revenue or whose revenue falls below the royalty threshold. 

A 5% royalty is due only if you are distributing an off-the-shelf product that incorporates Unreal Engine code (such as a game). Provided that you notify us on time using the Release Form, you will only owe royalties once the lifetime gross revenue from that product exceeds $1 million USD; in other words, the first $1 million will be royalty-exempt. You can find out more about royalties in the Releasing products section of this FAQ.

Download the EULA as a PDF here.

The official version of the EULA is in English only, but we currently have a Japanese language EULA, a Korean language EULA, and a Chinese language EULA available for reference purposes.

(エンドユーザーライセンス契約書の正式な原本は英語版となりますが、参考として日本語参考訳EULA、韓国語参考訳EULA、中国語参考訳EULA、をご用意しております。)

EULA 공식 버전은 영어만 인정되나, 현재 참고용으로 일본어 EULA, 한국어 EULA, 중국어 EULA가 제공되고 있습니다.   

EULA 的官方正式版本仅以英文提供，但我们也准备了 EULA 的日语版本，韩语版本和中文版本以供参考。

The Epic Content License Agreement is an agreement that applies to your use of certain digital content made available to you through Epic channels. This includes, for example, content made available to you from the Samples tab of the Epic Games launcher and the Quixel Megascans library, and content made available to you by Epic or by other sellers through the Unreal Engine Marketplace.
The Unreal Engine EULA for Publishing and the Unreal Engine EULA for Creators have been replaced by a single Unreal Engine EULA that covers all use cases. All use cases that were previously royalty-free under the Unreal Engine EULA for Creators remain royalty-free under the new EULA.  
There is no blanket prohibition in the Unreal Engine EULA against using Unreal Engine in connection with other software, including other game engines.  In fact, you can use assets created and/or modified in Unreal Engine in other video game engines without incurring any royalty obligation, provided that those assets don’t use or rely on Unreal Engine code and are not UE-Only Content provided by Epic. In addition, provided you aren't copying code, you are free to use, learn from, and freely discuss Unreal Engine even if you're developing a competing product or technology.
Previous versions of Unreal Engine are available from the Epic Games launcher and on GitHub.

View the Support page for the most comprehensive information regarding how you can get help and information for development with the Unreal Engine. 

If you're a custom licensee (meaning you have an Unreal Engine license agreement with Epic other than the standard Unreal Engine EULA), you should ask your questions at the Unreal Developer Network (login required).

Submit a console request form here.
Yes. Access to full C++ source code for Unreal Engine is included from the moment you create an account and install the engine. You can download source code from GitHub, and you will continue to receive regular updates, including access to live source code changes. Even if you don’t plan to modify the source, it’s super-useful to have it available to understand and debug interactions between your C++ code and the engine’s C++ code!
GitHub is our channel through which a growing number of contributors can fork and modify the engine. Source code changes you check in at GitHub will be visible to the community. If you submit a pull request to Epic, we'll review it and consider inclusion of your code into mainline Unreal Engine. If we ship your contribution, we'll gladly add your name to the credits in the engine.
Yes. You can earn YouTube advertising revenue or Twitch donations from videos or streams about Unreal Engine. No royalty is owed on this revenue.
Unreal Engine is free to download. We offer a choice of licensing terms depending on your use of Unreal Engine.
  • Under the standard EULA, Unreal Engine is free to use for learning, and for developing internal projects; it also enables you to distribute many commercial projects without paying any fees to Epic Games, including custom projects delivered to clients, linear content (such as films and television shows) and any product that earns no revenue or whose revenue falls below the royalty threshold. A 5% royalty is due only if you are distributing an off-the-shelf product that incorporates Unreal Engine code (such as a game). Provided that you notify us on time using the Release Form, you will only owe royalties once the lifetime gross revenue from that product exceeds $1 million USD; in other words, the first $1 million will be royalty-exempt.
  • There are also options for custom licenses that can include premium support; private training; negotiated terms for lower royalties, no royalties, or a different basis for royalty negotiation; and more. Contact us to inquire about a custom license for either games or non-games use.
Each individual using the Unreal Editor within the company during the course of the license period, even for occasional use, should be covered by one Enterprise License seat. Seats cannot be floated between individuals. Run-time usage of Unreal Engine does not require an Enterprise License.

For example, a company purchasing 50 Enterprise Licenses could have 50 unique individuals within the company download and/or open the Unreal Editor during the term of the agreement.
No. Under the standard EULA, there are no fees or royalties payable to Epic Games for creating and releasing linear content—that is, content which is viewed as a series of sequential frames (or as a single frame), rather than as an interactive experience. Linear content includes films, TV shows and commercials, videos, and still images.
No.
The Marketplace is the e-commerce platform through which content creators using Unreal Engine connect with developers by providing a wealth of game-ready content and code. Check out the Marketplace Support Site and Marketplace Guidelines for more information on obtaining and distributing products through the Unreal Engine Marketplace.
Twinmotion is a real-time visualization tool powered by Unreal Engine that enables anyone—from architects, urban planners, and landscaping professionals, to designers working on consumer products, transportation, or even fashion, and beyond—to quickly and easily produce high-quality images, panoramas, standard or 360° VR videos, and interactive presentations from design data. See all of the features and find out more on the Twinmotion home page.

Epic welcomes your feedback and code or other content submissions. If you send code and/or content to us, you need to have all the necessary rights to send it to us. However you send it, we will own it, and can (but don't have to) use it in the engine. Regardless of whether we use it, you can still use it (as long as it is in a way allowed by the EULA).

At any given time you are welcome to see our development roadmap and vote on the features you’re most interested in seeing next!

Unreal Engine 5 (UE5)

Unreal Engine 5 is the latest generation of Unreal Engine, a complete suite of creation tools for game development, architectural and automotive visualization, linear film and television content creation, broadcast and live event production, training and simulation, and other real-time applications. 

With UE5, game developers and creators across industries can realize next-generation real-time 3D content and experiences with greater freedom, fidelity, and flexibility than ever before. 
No. Unreal Engine 5 remains free to download, and comes fully loaded and production-ready out of the box, with every feature and full source code access included. 

As was the case for UE4, under the terms of the standard EULA, UE5 is free to use for learning, and for developing internal projects; it also enables you to distribute many commercial projects without paying any fees to Epic Games, including custom projects delivered to clients, linear content (such as films and television shows) and any product that earns no revenue or whose revenue falls below the royalty threshold. 

A 5% royalty is due only if you are distributing an off-the-shelf product that incorporates Unreal Engine code (such as a game). Provided that you notify us on time using the Release Form, you will only owe royalties once  the lifetime gross revenue from that product exceeds $1 million USD; in other words, the first $1 million will be royalty-exempt.

There are also options for custom licenses. Contact us for more information.
Unreal Engine 5 enables you to deploy projects to Windows PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, macOS, iOS, Android, ARKit, ARCore, OpenXR, SteamVR, Oculus, Linux, and SteamDeck. You can run the Unreal Editor on Windows, macOS, and Linux.

PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch console tools and code are available at no additional cost to developers who are registered developers for their respective platform(s).
Basic hardware requirements for working with Unreal Engine 5 are unchanged from UE4. However, some of the new features will require higher-end hardware to get best results.

To get the most out of Nanite, Virtual Shadow Maps, and Lumen, we currently recommend the equivalent of an NVIDIA GTX 1080 or AMD VEGA 64 or higher graphics card. To use hardware ray tracing with Lumen, we recommend an NVIDIA RTX 20 series or AMD RX 6000 series graphics card or higher. We also recommend upgrading to the latest drivers for your GPU.

Visit the documentation to view the full system requirements for UE5.
Unreal Engine 5.1 is backward-compatible with projects created in Unreal Engine 4.26, 4.27, UE5 Early Access, and Unreal Engine 5.0. Please note that some UE4 plugins have been discontinued and projects that were dependent on them might not work out of the box if opened in Unreal Engine 5.0 or 5.1.
Yes, you can have multiple versions installed side by side, including both UE4.X and UE5.X.

Releasing products

You can release any product that is allowed by law. You can release games, demos, VR projects, architectural showcases, trailers, films, and more.

The only parts of the Unreal Engine you can’t release to the general public are the source code and tools or modifications to them; these components may only be distributed to other licensees with access to the same version of the Unreal Engine.

Read the Unreal Engine EULA for full details.

You must notify Epic when you begin collecting revenue or ship your product; see our Release page for more details. Please be mindful of this notification requirement, as it will have an impact on whether you will be entitled to the $1 million USD lifetime gross revenue royalty exemption.

Under the terms of the standard Unreal Engine EULA, you are generally obligated to pay to Epic 5% of gross revenue on your product after it generates $1 million USD in gross revenue, regardless of what company collects the revenue. Provided you notify us on time using the Release Form, the 5% royalty is calculated on the amount over and above the first $1 million in gross revenue.

Royalty payments are due 45 days after the close of each calendar quarter. Along with the payment, you must send a royalty report on a per-product basis. For more information, see our Release page.

In addition to the standard Unreal Engine EULA, we also offer custom licenses that can include negotiated terms for lower royalties, no royalties, or a different basis for royalty calculation.

You are required to report revenues on a quarterly basis if you are due to pay royalties to us. However, in any quarter in which your product generates less than $10,000 USD, you do not need to report revenues. If your game or other interactive off-the-shelf product is no longer being sold, no revenue reports are due.
Let’s say you released a game earlier this year and it made $500K in Q1 2020. You have notified us before collecting revenue or shipping your product. $500K is less than $1M, so no royalties are due and you do not need to report revenues. If you have already paid royalties on this quarter, Epic will reach out to you and return them.

In Q2 2020, your game earns an additional $700K, bringing the total gross revenue to $1.2M. 

At this point you would report on revenues, deduct the $1M royalty exemption from total revenue, and calculate the 5% royalty using the remainder.
$1,200,000 - $1,000,000 = $200,000
$200,000 x 0.05 = $10,000
This would mean that up until now you have used Unreal Engine during your entire development cycle for free, earned $1.2M in revenue, and you owe a royalty of $10,000.

Let’s say your game makes $300K in Q3 2020. Since the $1M threshold has been exceeded, and the amount earned in the quarter is greater than $10K, royalties are due on the full quarterly amount at the rate of 5%.
$300,000 > $10,000
$300,000 x 0.05 = $15,000
You would report your game’s revenues and owe $15,000 in royalties.

As sales slow, your game only makes $5K in Q4 2020. Although you’ve passed the $1M threshold, the earnings this quarter are less than $10K, and so no royalties are due and revenues do not need to be reported.

As business picks back up in Q1 2021, your game makes $100K. Since you’ve passed the $1M threshold, and the amount made in the quarter is greater than $10K, revenue reporting and royalties are due at the 5% rate.
$100,000 > $10,000
$100,000 x 0.05 = $5,000
You would report your game’s revenues and owe $5,000 in royalties.

In summary, if the lifetime revenue of your game from Q1 2020 to Q1 2021 is $1,605,000, the total amount of royalties payable is $30K. Please note that if you have failed to notify us about your project on time, the $1M royalty exemption will not be applied to the calculations set out in this example.
Yes, it applies to both Unreal Engine 4 and Unreal Engine 5, effective as of January 1, 2020. 
It is applicable per title.
Provided that you have notified us when you begin collecting revenue or shipping your product: nothing.
Revenue from these sources is included in the gross revenue calculation above.

Our aim is to provide powerful tools, a scalable and productive workflow, advanced features, and millions of lines of C++ source code that enable developers to achieve more than they would otherwise be able to, so that this structure works to everyone’s benefit.

In this business model, Epic succeeds only when developers succeed using Unreal Engine. Many of the industry’s leading developers and publishers have signed up to license Unreal Engine with royalty-based terms over the years, and now this level of access is open to everyone. And, don't forget, we continue to offer custom terms.

If you require terms that reduce or eliminate the 5% royalty in exchange for an upfront fee, or if you need custom legal terms or dedicated Epic support to help your team reduce risk or achieve specific goals, we’re here to help. Contact us for more information.

Yes, and we have designed the Unreal Editor and launcher to accommodate this. We aim to build a unified development and modding community. Here is how this works: You’re free to release your game through any distribution channels of your choosing, however the Unreal Editor (including modified versions) and code may only be distributed through official Epic channels (e.g. the Epic Games launcher for binaries, and GitHub for source), to users who have accepted the EULA.

You’re free to release Unreal Engine products through a publisher or distributor, and the EULA gives you the right to sublicense the necessary parts of Unreal Engine to them so they can release your product.

When negotiating terms with publishers, please keep in mind that the royalty remains 5% of the product's gross revenue after generating $1 million USD. In this scenario, feel free to refer your publisher to Epic during discussions, as it may be advantageous to all if the publisher obtains a custom-negotiated, multi-product Unreal Engine license covering your product.

No. Revenue generated from the Epic Games Store will be excluded from the calculations of the 5% royalty due for Unreal Engine. When you release a product on the Epic Games Store, you pay Epic 12% of the revenue earned and keep 88%. There is no additional Unreal Engine royalty due on the revenue.
You do not have to pay royalties on award winnings.

Royalties are due on revenue from Kickstarter or other crowdfunding sources when the revenue is actually attributable to your product. For example, if the user is required to purchase a particular funding package to obtain access (now or later) to your product, or if that package gives the buyer benefits within the product such as in-game items or virtual currency.

Here’s an example of what we mean by “attributable”: Assume you provide two tiers of offers, a signed poster for $20, and a signed poster plus game access for $50. No royalties are due on ancillary products like posters, so no royalty is due on the $20 tier. On the $50 tier, the user is paying for the poster with a $20 value, and that implies that the remaining $30 of value is attributable to the product. So, for each $50 tier sale, you’d pay a royalty of $1.50 (5% of $30).

Yes! The following revenue sources are royalty-free:

  • Ancillary products, including t-shirts, CDs, plushies, action figures, and books. The exception is items with embedded data or information, such as QR codes, that affect the operation of the product.
  • Consulting, work-for-hire services, and in-house projects using Unreal Engine. This applies to using the engine to create architectural, automotive, or other visualizations, as well as consultants receiving a development fee for creating custom projects.
  • Non-interactive linear media, including movies, television shows, animated films, and cartoons distributed as video.
  • Amusement park rides and live installations.
  • Truly free games and apps (with no associated revenue).
  • Location-based experiences, such as interactive amusement park rides, coin-op arcades, or VR experiences.

Source code

Unreal Engine includes full access to the complete C++ source code. To access source code on GitHub, you'll need to have a GitHub account, and you'll need to link it to your Epic Games account. Refer to this page for full instructions. If you're a custom licensee, you also have the option to access the source code via Perforce; you should have received information about this during your onboarding. If you're not a custom licensee, contact us if you're interested in finding out more about the benefits.

You can extend it, modify it, fork it, or integrate it with other software or libraries, with one exception: You can’t combine the Unreal Engine code with code covered by a “Copyleft” license agreement which would directly or indirectly require the Unreal Engine to be governed by terms other than the EULA.

  • Unacceptable Copyleft licenses include: Software licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL), Lesser GPL (LGPL) (unless you are merely dynamically linking a shared library), or Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.
  • Acceptable Non-Copyleft licenses include: Software licensed under the BSD License, MIT License, Microsoft Public License, or Apache License.
You can share the source code or tools, along with any modifications you’ve made, with anyone who is an Unreal Engine licensee who is authorized to access the same version of the engine as yours, e.g. the 5.x.x version number of your installed build.
If you use any Unreal Engine code in your product (even just a little), then your entire product is governed by the Unreal Engine EULA, and is subject to 5% royalties when your gross lifetime revenues from that product exceed $1 million USD. 
Yes, as long as you don’t copy any of the code. Code is copyrighted, but knowledge is free!
Unreal Engine licensees are permitted to post engine code snippets (up to 30 lines) in a public forum, but only for the purpose of discussing the content of the snippet.

Epic MegaGrants

Epic Games has committed to providing financial grants to creative, noteworthy, and innovative projects built in and around Unreal Engine or projects that enhance the open source 3D graphics ecosystem.

Our average grants range from $5,000 to $250,000, with some extraordinary projects receiving up to $500,000! Projects selected cover a variety of endeavors from game development, architecture projects, and film production, to educational uses and software tool development. No matter what size grant you receive, you will continue to own your IP and will be free to publish it however you wish. 

Simply put, we succeed when you succeed. We’re incredibly proud of the Unreal Engine community and want to do what we can to grow it.

We’re looking to support anyone doing amazing things with Unreal Engine or for the 3D graphics ecosystem. To ensure that Epic MegaGrants delivers the most value to the community, here are a few considerations:

  • Game development: We love helping Unreal Engine games see the light of day, whether they are brand new or moving to UE5. Please submit game projects that are past the idea/design phase and have at least some form of working prototype. A link to a video of your working prototype is ideal.
  • Film, TV & live events: Real-time technology is transforming the entertainment world, leaving tons of room for experiments and growth. We are looking at everything from live-action/animated films and shows to broadcast, live, and location-based events. The bolder, the better.
  • Other non-games verticals: We’d love to see your Unreal Engine projects in other industries, including architecture, automotive, manufacturing, simulation, product design, advertising, VR/AR, and more. For complex projects, we are looking for more detailed project plans and prototypes.
  • Education: Research, educational curricula and course development, student projects, and university programs using or related to Unreal Engine are all eligible. Please note that for institutions, we only accept submissions from degree-granting schools and educators at such schools.
  • Tools and open source development: You can submit an application for a new tool or plans to port existing tools to Unreal Engine or create tools that integrate existing software with Unreal Engine. You can also submit a new open source tool (including tools that provide interoperability) or any enhancement for existing open source projects related to 3D graphics. For new tools, we would like to see a detailed plan or, if available, a prototype.
  • Unreal Editor for Fortnite Creative Islands: Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN) combines the power of Unreal Engine with the scale of Fortnite. We're looking for talented creators and developers that are building imaginative and innovative Fortnite Creative islands. From games to interactive experiences we're looking to bring new projects to life.
Yes. If your project is built in another engine or toolset and you want to move it to Unreal Engine, you are eligible to apply for an Epic MegaGrant. If you want to develop a project that enhances open source 3D content creation, whether or not it integrates with or relates to Unreal Engine, you are also eligible.
No. Epic Games is not participating in sponsorships at this time.
No. We encourage and support projects from all over the globe! If we can legally make payment to you, you are eligible.
No. Individuals and small teams are also eligible and encouraged to apply. We strive for fairness, and treat every project equally, regardless of who you are.
Yes.
If your project was not chosen for an Epic MegaGrant and you have made updates to your project that you’d like us to consider, you are eligible to reapply. We ask that you  wait for the decision to be made before reapplying for the same project. 
Epic MegaGrants program is an ongoing program, and there is no specific deadline to apply for a grant.
Submit your application via the form on the Epic MegaGrants page and tell us about your project. Send us videos, links, and any other info you think will help us see why your project is awesome.
We recommend that you create a realistic budget for your project. We also recommend mentioning any additional funding you may have secured for your project. It is not guaranteed that you will receive the amount you request. 

We ask that the funds be used directly for project or team specific expenses, such as continued project development and hiring. Please include a high-level budget breakdown, including key buckets (for example, $5,000 for developer training). If your planned use of the funds changes over the course of your project, please let us know.

We want to focus on supporting the project directly, but will occasionally approve requests to apply the funding for hardware purchases or rentals if such hardware will contribute to the project in a meaningful way, on a case-by-case basis at Epic’s sole discretion. 
To add significant project updates to your application, email megagrants@epicgames.com directly with any additional information—such as links, videos, or images—that you would like us to consider. We are happy to add anything you provide to the application on your behalf.

Please make sure that you provide passwords to password-protected documentation and/or documentation that the review team can access without having to login or provide personal information in order to view. 
We evaluate each project based on quality and unique appeal, by how much it will benefit the Unreal Engine and 3D graphics community and ecosystem, and whether we think the work is viable. Below are some pointers to help you best position your project: 
  • Quality and unique appeal: Show us what sets your project apart from others with high-quality demos or builds and well-documented descriptions. Is your project pushing the technical barriers and capabilities of the engine? Including a detailed example and media in your submission can help make your project stand out.
  • Community benefit: Tell us how you will give back to the community to create lasting impact for other developers and creators. For example, will you open-source the project, make the assets available through a marketplace, share the learnings of your project with the community, or help other developers with a new SDK, tool or plug-in. Be specific in how your project will go beyond the walls of your team or company. 
  • Viability: Be clear on your funding needs and how the money will be used to move your project forward, including a well-documented budget highlighting the major spend areas (e.g., hiring a new developer, documentation, QA). We encourage you to lay out a project plan, including key milestones, deliverables, and an overall timeline. Be specific enough to give us greater confidence in your ability to execute your plan. 

For inspiration we recommend checking out this link for past recipients showcase and blog posts.
We strive to get back to you within 90 days of your submission and in periods of high application volume it may take a bit longer. We'll also follow up if we need more information or if we need more time to evaluate your project.
Due to the high volume of applications, we are not able to grant requests for phone calls or video calls. Our review committee will carefully evaluate all materials and media that you submit. If we have additional questions, we will reach out to you directly.
For grants up to and including $25,000, you may receive the entire grant amount in a single payment.
 
For larger grants, funds will typically be paid out over several installments, depending on the size of the grant and complexity of your project. We’ll let you know about installment timing if your grant is approved, and will check in with you periodically throughout the life of your project. We’ll never tell you how to use money granted to you, but we do want to see continued planning, progress, and viability in your project prior to payout of an installment.
 
With some large and complex projects, Epic may procure services for your use as part of the grant, if doing so would be effective in bringing your project to fruition.
Yes! The MegaGrants program continues to create additional opportunities to support and promote your work! Some of these include:
  • Support and hardware from select MegaGrant Partners
  • Recipient newsletters
  • Showcasing opportunities
  • Recipient community
  • And more!
The grant may be considered income to you, which may be subject to taxes depending on where the activity is performed. We recommend you check with a tax professional familiar with your local tax laws to understand the tax implications to you. 
If your project is chosen to receive a MegaGrant and it utilizes Unreal Engine, you will be required to agree to the Unreal Engine End User License Agreement. 
We are not able to sign any NDAs at this time. 
No. Epic MegaGrants are only eligible to projects that can be published through UEFN. If you would like to use Fortnite Creative AND UEFN to create your submission, the project must be primarily built using Unreal Editor for Fortnite and published through UEFN.
 
Yes. You may still receive an Epic MegaGrant if you participate in SAC or are enrolled in our engagement payout programs.
If you would like to submit an Unreal Editor for Fortnite project please select the “Project Type” that best describes your submission, select “other” as your “Project Type Subcategory,” and note the use of UEFN in your project details.

Educational use

Epic Games enthusiastically supports educational use of Unreal Engine! For detailed information about the opportunities, see our Academic Use page. If you're ready to teach Unreal, please visit our Academic Partners page.
Besides all of the free, friendly, and accessible terms for general use of Unreal Engine, academic institutions are authorized to install Unreal Engine on any of their computers (e.g. in computer labs), and all users of those computers can access the engine.
Students who choose to ship their class projects as commercial games or other interactive off-the-shelf products are under the same EULA terms as other Unreal Engine developers. Successful games that make more than $1 million USD in lifetime gross revenues are obligated to pay a 5% royalty to Epic Games.
Because Unreal Engine includes full C++ source, students have 100% visibility into the workings of one of the world’s leading-edge software projects. Students can learn from the design of Unreal Engine, and carry out their research in areas such as graphics, simulation, physics, and computer vision by extending the engine, while leveraging all of its existing capabilities. This is an amazing way to build real-world experience and a strong resume!
Yes. We'd love to hear about any contributions you'd like to make. Please utilize our resources and share information with the community. You can kick off discussions about this on the forums, chat with us on Twitter, and attend our weekly Twitch stream.

MetaHuman

MetaHuman is a complete framework that gives any creator the power to create, animate, and use highly realistic human characters in any way imaginable. It encompasses MetaHuman Creator and the MetaHuman Plugin for Unreal Engine, which includes MetaHuman Animator and Mesh to MetaHuman. 
MetaHuman Creator is a cloud-based application that enables you to quickly and easily create unique, high-fidelity digital humans that we call MetaHumans. You can directly manipulate facial features, adjust skin complexion, edit teeth, and select from a preset range of body types, hairstyles, clothing, and more. When your character is finished, you can export and download it—rigged and ready to animate in Unreal Engine.
MetaHuman Creator uses cutting-edge techniques to enable anyone to achieve state-of-the-art, fully rigged photorealistic CG human characters in minutes, with no compromise on quality for real-time readiness. It combines technology from industry leaders 3Lateral and Cubic Motion—both now part of Epic Games—and makes it accessible to all. Previously, it was possible to create assets of this caliber only through extremely time-consuming and expensive in-house methods or outsourcing.
“Early Access” means we’re opening up MetaHuman to everyone, but we're still working on its development.
Fill in this form to request Early Access. If you have a current Unreal Engine support contract with access to UDN, you may be eligible for additional benefits; contact your Epic Account Manager for details.
Yes! You can find links to the documentation and to several tutorials on the MetaHuman home page. You can also check out the resources on the Epic Developer Community.
MetaHuman's preset characters or MetaHumans you create using MetaHuman Creator or the MetaHuman Plugin for Unreal Engine are free for your use in your Unreal Engine projects. This means that MetaHuman assets must be rendered with Unreal Engine.
You will need a Windows or macOS computer with internet access and a Chrome, Edge (Chromium), Firefox, or Safari web browser. You will also need an Epic Games account. To download your MetaHumans, you will need to use Quixel Bridge, which is now integrated into Unreal Engine 5. If you're still using UE4, download the free standalone Bridge application.
MetaHumans require Unreal Engine 4.26.2 or later. We recommend using Unreal Engine 5, where you can use them in conjunction with animation, rigging, and ragdoll physics features. You’ll need UE 5.2 or later to use MetaHuman Animator. 
MetaHuman source assets can be downloaded for animating in Autodesk Maya. However, you cannot publish MetaHumans as final content unless rendered with Unreal Engine. 
Characters generated in MetaHuman Creator, including those in the sample project, are licensed for use in Unreal Engine projects. This means that you must render MetaHumans with Unreal Engine; you cannot render them outside of Unreal Engine.
No. MetaHuman and the MetaHuman assets may not be used for the purpose of building or enhancing any database; training or testing any artificial intelligence; machine learning; deep learning; neural networks; or similar technologies. However, characters generated in MetaHuman Creator or the MetaHuman Plugin can be animated with systems that are themselves driven by artificial intelligence or other similar technologies.
Yes! As long as you use the MetaHuman characters as a presentation layer of your simulation application. However, note that MetaHuman characters may not be used in deep learning applications (see above).
The MetaHuman Creator tool itself cannot run in game—it is an external content creation application. The MetaHuman assets it generates are intended for real-time use in Unreal Engine, but are at the resource-hungry end of the spectrum—technology like real-time rendering of strand-based hair is demanding, and we are constantly working to optimize performance. However, the assets come with eight LODs, some of which employ hair cards, that will enable you to hit desired performance levels on a range of target platforms. 

MetaHuman Animator is an offline process, but the assets it produces can be used in a real-time environment. 
MetaHuman Animator includes Unreal Engine’s Live Link Face iOS app. We’re also currently working with vendors on providing support for ARKit, DI4D, Digital Domain, Faceware, JALI, and Speech Graphics solutions. Please contact the vendors directly for more details.
The MetaHuman Plugin for Unreal Engine includes Mesh to MetaHuman and MetaHuman Animator. 

Mesh to MetaHuman enables you to take your own custom facial mesh and convert it into a MetaHuman, fully rigged and ready to animate. You can then further refine your character in MetaHuman Creator.

MetaHuman Animator enables you to reproduce any facial performance as high-fidelity animation on MetaHuman characters. 
Mesh to MetaHuman requires UE 5.0 and later, while the MetaHuman Animator component requires UE 5.2 and later. 
You can download the MetaHuman Plugin for Unreal Engine here.
The mesh can be a scan, a sculpt, or even an existing game asset—it just needs to be of a human face. For full details of the type of meshes that produce the best results, visit the documentation.
Vendors offering scanning services that can produce results compatible with Mesh to MetaHuman include 3D Scan Store, Digic, Ecco Studios, GiantStep, Infinite-Realities, Mimic Productions, Quantum Capture, and SCANable. 
Please contact them for more details.
Minimum specifications
  • Intel Core i7 6700, or AMD Ryzen 5 2500X CPU
  • NVIDIA RTX 2070, or AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT GPU (minimum 6 GB of VRAM)
  • 2 GB of system memory per logical core, 32 GB minimum
  • Solid-state drive
  • Minimum requirement: Windows 10 64-bit (any).

Recommended specifications
  • Intel i9 12900, or AMD Ryzen 9 5950x (16 physical cores and up)
  • NVIDIA RTX 3080, or AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT GPU (10 GB of VRAM)
  • 4 GB of system memory per logical core, 64 GB minimum
  • NVMe solid-state data drive
  • Recommended requirement: Windows 11 64-bit (any).
MetaHuman Animator supports both Apple iPhone and stereo helmet-mounted camera systems (HMC) as the capture source. 

All iPhone 12 models and newer will work using the updated Live Link Face app. Live Link Face also supports recent Apple iPad Pro devices with a TrueDepth camera. However, it is not optimized for tablet hardware.

MetaHuman Animator will work with any vertical stereo HMC and has been tested with hardware from both Technoprops and Standard Deviation.

In all cases, the quality of results depends on the quality of the device sensors, so results can vary.
 
Live Link Face is the name of an iPhone application that can be used to animate facial performances. MetaHuman Animator uses Live Link Face to capture performances on iPhone but applies its own processing to create the facial animation.
No. MetaHuman Animator needs depth data as well as video data to generate animation. This can either be provided directly by the capture process or inferred by MetaHuman Animator from stereoscopic views. 
Camera calibration is only necessary with stereo capture systems. There is a guide included with the stereo capture tools that can be found here.
All animation processing is done on the local machine. Epic Games does not store or collect the data that you capture as part of MetaHuman Animator. 
No. The MetaHuman Identity produced with the MetaHuman Plugin for Unreal Engine is everything you need to create animation data.