Release Notes¶
What each version of the FBX Exporter for MetaHumans changed, newest first. The version number is the one the plugin shows in Unreal's Edit → Plugins, and the one on the download.
Current Release
Older Release
Current Release is the version you get today. Older Release was released and has since been followed by a newer one.
Added something new
Changed something that already existed
Fixed something that was wrong
The first release lists what the exporter does rather than what changed, since there is no earlier version to change from. Groups are named after the chapter that documents them, so anything here can be read about in full one click away.
If an entry does not say what you needed it to, ask at support@facecue.net.
0.8.7 beta Current Release
HDRP comes level with URP. The live eye blur runs there too, the layers of the eye draw in their proper order, and Subsurface skin shares one diffusion profile across a project. A Humanoid character moves its eyes, fingers and toes where they are, and can leave the jaw to its expressions.
- AddedPupil Widening in the Export group, for DNA-263. It sets how far the expressions that open the pupil widen it, from the MetaHuman's own range to twice it, and starts at twice.
- AddedAvatar Mapping under Import as Humanoid. Full Mapping names every bone of the avatar for Unity instead of leaving Unity to guess, and Leave Out Jaw keeps the jaw out of Humanoid animation, so a clip without jaw motion leaves the lips closed. Both work with Update Existing.
- ChangedThe live blur's shader and inspector go next to the first character you export into a project. Every later export finds them wherever the project keeps them, moved or renamed, and updates them there.
- FixedHumanoid animation turned the corners of the eyes instead of the eyes, bent each finger from inside the palm, never moved the fingertips and turned the toes on the big toe. Each part now moves where it is.
- FixedThe reset arrow beside each setting, in the export window and the Eye Tuner, set it to zero or the first choice. It now restores the exporter's own default.
- AddedThe live eye blur on HDRP, with the same settings as on URP. It needs the camera's Refraction on, which it is unless a camera turns it off.
- ChangedHDRP Subsurface skin uses the diffusion profile your project already has, a listed one first, instead of bringing a new one with every export, so you press Fix once per project. A profile you edited and listed is used as it is, never overwritten.
- FixedOn HDRP the eye's reflection, its shading layer and the film of tears drew in whatever order the mesh held them. They now draw in a set order, and the eyelashes draw after the live blur.
- FixedThe blur material's inspector failed to compile in a project with HDRP and no URP.
- ChangedIris Size starts at 0.95, where the iris draws as Unreal shows it, and the value is the size you get. A remembered Iris Size starts again from there.
- ChangedPupil Dilation, Fade Length and Haze Strength, when read from the eye material, come already suited to a Unity eye, a touch wider pupil and a sharper, lighter iris edge, and show the values they use. Remembered values start again from the material.
- ChangedBlur Reach Bottom starts at 1, a little less blur along the lower lid.
0.8.6 beta Older Release
A character with its expressions is much lighter in Unity and in a build, with no difference you can see. Expression Lighting comes down to Full or a None that does what it says, and an export keeps the import settings you changed in Unity.
- AddedBlendshape Precision (mm) in the Export group. The export leaves out expression movement too small to see, which makes a character with every expression about a fifth lighter in Unity. At 0 it keeps every movement.
- AddedAn export into a folder in your Unity project keeps the import settings you changed there: each texture's platform overrides, compression and crunch, and the character's Mesh Compression, Read/Write and Optimize Mesh. Works with Update Existing.
- ChangedThe expressions are stored at the precision Unity reads them at, which makes the FBX smaller with the same result in Unity.
- ChangedExpression Lighting starts on Full and offers Full and None. Optimized is gone, since it left the character heavier in Unity than Full, and a remembered Optimized exports as Full.
- FixedWith Expression Lighting on None, Unity worked the expressions' lighting out for itself. They now light as if the face were neutral, as the setting says, and the character is the lightest it can be.
0.8.5 beta Older Release
On URP the edge of the eye now softens live in Unity, into the lids and the pink inner corner, the way Unreal blurs it. The eye darkens softly under the upper lid as it does in Unreal, the eye's material settings sit in groups, and the iris takes Unreal's size.
- AddedThe live eye blur on URP. The face carries a second copy of the eye's shading layer, drawn by a shader that comes with the export and needs Opaque Texture on in the project's URP asset. Its material inspector says so when it is off. On HDRP the copy stays hidden.
- AddedThe blur's shader and inspector are written once per Unity project, to Assets/MetaHumanFBX/Shaders, and every character exported there shares them.
- AddedCorner Fringe on the blur material, a faint blush of the pink inner corner on the white beside it, as the light through the skin gives it in Unreal.
- FixedThe skin's surface maps, the hair masks and the cornea mask imported into Unity as colour maps, which darkened what they hold. They import as data now.
- AddedLash Shade and Lash Shade Reach. The eye darkens softly just under the upper lid, as Unreal draws it there, painted in so it stays smooth at any shadow quality. It gives way when the lashes cast their own shadows, and works with Update Existing.
- ChangedStrand Thickness starts at 0.65, finer than the groom's own, which reads closer to Unreal's lashes.
- ChangedWith the live blur on, the eyelashes draw after it, so it no longer smears them into a dark band over the eye.
- FixedOn URP the eye's reflection and its shading layer drew in the wrong order, so the lids' shade never darkened the reflection. Each now holds its place.
- AddedA Live Blur group in Eye Material: Blur Amount, Blur Reach for the top, bottom, outer and inner sides, and Blur Corner Lift, all working with Update Existing.
- ChangedThe Eye Material settings sit in groups, from the eyeball outward: Eyeball, Shade & Lid Edge, Tears and Live Blur.
- ChangedIris Size is a percentage of the MetaHuman's own iris size, where 100% draws it as Unreal does, a touch smaller than before.
- ChangedWith the live blur on, the film of tears carries no Tear Line Shade, since the blur softens that line itself.
- ChangedCaruncle Tone starts at 15%, since the blur's shade now deepens the corner too.
0.8.4 beta Older Release
The inner corner of the eye and the line of tears along the lower lid come closer to Unreal. The film of tears catches the light again, a faint shadow softens the line where the lid meets the eye, and the pink corner beside the nose takes Unreal's deeper tone without a dark rim. The eyelashes can stay out of the shadows.
- AddedCast Shadows for the eyelashes. A Unity lash casts a full, sharp shadow where Unreal's fine strands barely shadow at all, so it can be switched off. Works with Update Existing. Not available with the Reallusion shader.
- ChangedThe Brows group lists Brow Material, Brightness, Richness and Soft Edges in that order, as the Eyelashes group does.
- AddedTear Shine. The film of tears along the lower lid catches the light in the thin wet line Unreal draws, with its fine ripples. At 0 it stays dry, as before.
- AddedTear Line Shade, a faint shadow in the film of tears over the line where the lower lid meets the eye, with Shade Onto the Eye, Fade Onto the Eye, Shade Onto the Lid and Fade Onto the Lid to shape it. It needs Soften Lid Edge on.
- AddedCaruncle Tone, which deepens the pink corner of the eye beside the nose toward Unreal's and lets it meet the white in its own colour. It takes effect when the textures are exported.
- FixedA dark rim ran along the pink corner of the eye where it meets the white. The Socket Shade no longer falls on the corner itself.
- FixedWith Soften Lid Edge on, the softened edge could read too light under a shaded lid. The Socket Shade now falls over it, as it does in Unreal.
0.8.3 beta Older Release
The eyelashes are the character's own, built strand by strand from its eyelash groom, and the thin dark line where the lids meet the eye is softened the way Unreal draws it. The brows get colour settings of their own, and the iris loses a ring at the edge of its fade.
- AddedEyelashes built strand by strand from the character's own eyelash groom, which follow the lids through every expression, in place of the template lashes. Lashes chooses between Strands and Cards.
- AddedStrand Shape, Strand Thickness, Tip Fade and Keep Clear of the Skin, to shape the strand eyelashes. Tip Fade also works with Update Existing.
- AddedBrightness and Richness for the brows, apart from the hair's.
- AddedSoften Lid Edge. The thin dark line where the lids meet the eye softens into the lid, as it does in Unreal, on URP and HDRP. It needs a Full Export.
- ChangedThe iris starts brighter, with its colour and contrast as the MetaHuman bakes them, and Infer from MetaHuman sets the same.
- FixedA thin ring could show at the outer end of the iris edge's fade once the iris colour settings were moved.
0.8.2 beta Older Release
The eye gets a clear cornea that turns with it, the closed eyelids lose their dark marks, and expressions held part-way can follow the MetaHuman more closely. The teeth and the tear film shine less, so a talking face never reads as wet, and settings across the window and the Eye Tuner are named for what they do.
- AddedPart-Way Accuracy, an option under Export. Expressions that move along a curve in Unreal, a blink or the jaw opening, follow the MetaHuman part-way in Unity too, as well as at full strength.
- ChangedBlendshape Normals is now Expression Lighting, and Normal Detail Threshold is Lighting Threshold, named for what they do.
- FixedDark marks could show on closed eyelids. Where an expression turns the skin right over, the skin now takes its lighting from the shape it folds into, and Clean Folds under Export switches it.
- ChangedThe teeth shine far less, and the thin film of tears along the lower lid no longer glints, so a talking face never reads as wet.
- ChangedSettings named for what they do: Dual Pass is Soft Edges on the hair, brows and eyelashes, Paint Depth Into Hair Colour is Steady Depth, and Card Shell Normal is Hair Lighting.
- ChangedThe eye's reflection comes from a clear dome that sits on the eyeball itself. It turns with the eye, and the lids close over it without bending its reflection. Cornea Shell is now Cornea, and Matte Eyelids is gone, since the lids no longer touch the reflection.
- ChangedThe eye's material settings are named for what they do: Reflection Sharpness, Iris Sheen, Socket Shade with Shade Strength, and Iris Glow with Glow Strength and Rim Fade.
- ChangedThe tuner's settings are grouped by what they shape, from the middle of the eye outward: Iris Placement, Iris Colour, Iris Edge, Limbal Ring, Sclera, and Veins & Redness. Names that read alike or ran backwards are clearer, such as Fade Length and Fade Easing for the iris edge, and Ring Tightness.
- FixedThe tuner listed its settings upside down, with the MetaHuman at the bottom.
- FixedSclera Size did not change how much of the eye the white covers. It is now Vein Pattern Size, which draws the white's own veins in toward the iris.
0.8.1 beta Older Release
Tuning a character's look no longer means exporting it again. Update Existing refreshes an earlier export around the FBX it already has, in a fraction of the time. The character also reads much closer to how Unreal draws it: the eye follows Unreal's own eye, the skin carries its shine, and the hair and eyelashes take on the colour Unreal gives them. Texture Detail decides how much of the texture size each kind of map gets, and a crash is fixed.
- AddedUpdate Existing, a Mode under Export. It rewrites an earlier export's textures, materials and import settings around the FBX already in the folder, without exporting the FBX again, and Unity updates the character in place.
- AddedWhen an update finishes, it lists the files an earlier export wrote that the new settings no longer use, and any material slot left without a material.
- AddedWhen the folder holds more than one export of the character, Update Existing asks which one to update.
- ChangedThe export window's title shows the version you have installed.
- ChangedEach export keeps a small hidden record of the files it wrote, so a later update can tell which ones it no longer needs.
- ChangedSettings whose starting value changed in this version start once from the new one, the first time you open the window.
- FixedA Face Only export with no blendshapes crashed the editor.
- AddedTexture Detail. Optimized keeps colour and normal maps at the full size and writes the maps whose detail changes slowly smaller, for a much lighter export. Full writes every map at its full size.
- AddedRichness for the hair, beard, moustache and brows, to give them the depth of colour Unreal's hair shading adds.
- AddedBrightness and Richness for the eyelashes, apart from the hair's.
- AddedThe message at the end of an export says when the eyelashes are invisible, or could not take the MetaHuman's own colour.
- ChangedTexture Resolution is now Maximum Texture Size.
- ChangedThe skin starts with the full shine Unreal gives it.
- ChangedThe hair and the eyelashes start at the colour they have in Unreal, deeper and darker than the colour it stores for them, and the eyelashes read denser.
- FixedThe lips came out mirror-smooth, and a shrunk shine or occlusion map could lose its detail in places.
- FixedThe eyelashes came out light brown on every character. They now take the colour of the MetaHuman's own eyelashes, and a MetaHuman with no eyelashes in Unreal has none in Unity either.
- AddedIris Brightness, Iris Contrast, Iris Saturation and Iris Clarity, to bring the iris to life in Unity. They start at the look Unreal gives the iris.
- AddedPupil, which keeps the pupil black while the cornea in front of it still catches highlights, the way a real eye does, or darkens it fully.
- AddedSclera Tint, to darken or warm the white of the eye.
- AddedPupil Dilation, Iris Edge Softness and Iris Edge Spread, and Irritation for the veins in the white.
- AddedEye Occlusion, the soft shadow Unreal lays over a MetaHuman's eye toward the lids and the inner corner, with its strength. It dims the eye's reflection there too.
- ChangedThe eye now matches how Unreal draws each MetaHuman's eye: the size of its iris and pupil, a soft yet short fade from the iris into the white, and faint veins away from the iris, all read from the character's own eye material.
- ChangedThe eye's reflection comes from the clear dome alone, over the iris and the white, with Unreal's smoothness. Matte Eyelids keeps the dome from shining where it rests on the lids, found from the character's own face. Dome Smoothness adjusts the reflection, and Shell Fade Over Iris is gone.
- ChangedInfer from MetaHuman also sets the iris to the look Unreal's eye shading gives it.
- ChangedThe tuner closes with Apply or Cancel, so it is clear when its settings reach the export.
- ChangedExport Textures is now Update Export's Eyes, which refreshes the eyes of an earlier export in place, so a change shows in Unity without exporting again.
- ChangedTune Eyes Texture... stays locked until a MetaHuman is set.
- ChangedIris Emission is a choice of None, Disabled or Enabled. Disabled brings the glow with the eye material, switched off, so it can be turned on later in Unity.
- FixedExporting the eye textures from the tuner could leave the eyes without their textures in Unity.
- FixedThe pupil read larger than in Unreal.
- FixedThe shine on the clear dome over the eye was laid out upside down.
0.8.0 beta Older Release
The first release. It takes an assembled MetaHuman out of Unreal in one step, as a ready-to-use FBX for Unity, or as per-expression OBJs for Maya and Blender.
- One folder holding the character, its textures and its Unity materials
- Expressions as blendshapes the 52 ARKit shapes, every expression control the rig has, or none for a quicker export
- Asset ids of its own, so two characters live in one Unity project kept with the folder, or new every export
- Point at an assembled MetaHuman, or at the character you edit
- The face, the body and the hair and brow cards found for you
- Assembling from the window, when the assembly is missing or out of date
- The project settings MetaHumans need, checked and set for you with one restart
- A neutral OBJ plus one posed OBJ per expression, the set a rig is built from
- Quads or triangles, any level of detail, and the jaw correctives as real shapes
- The neutral body as
BaseBody.obj
- The head on its own, or the whole character on one skeleton wearing its clothes
- Baked upright and facing forward, so it imports with no axis conversion
- Humanoid or its own bones, and MetaHuman's eight bone influences per vertex
- Per-expression normals, so an expression lights correctly instead of reading flat
- Clothes merged into the character, or kept as meshes you can swap
- A Unity material for every slot, bound as the character imports, for URP or HDRP
- Skin, eyes and teeth on their baked materials carrying Unreal's own variation in how the skin catches the light
- Skin shaded with subsurface scattering on HDRP so the folds of a face keep their light instead of going dark
- Glossiness settings for the skin and for the clothes, on URP and HDRP
- Hair, brow and eyelash cards a plain cutout, Unity's hair shading, or the Reallusion shader
- Hair, beards, moustaches and brows in the MetaHuman's own colours, strand by strand greying and ombré included
- Brightness and root shadow settings for the hair, so it reads in Unity as it does in Unreal
- Short hair Unreal draws only as strands, such as a buzzed side, painted onto the skin and anything that cannot be carried named when the export ends
- Clothes carrying their colour, roughness, metallic and occlusion an outfit that builds its colour inside the material is baked as Unreal draws it
- Normal maps written in Unity's convention, with an exception per map
- Textures at the character's baked resolution, capped at 2K, 4K or 8K
- Shaping the iris, the sclera and the limbus, with a baked preview
- The eye's look in Unity the cornea shell, the iris glow and its gloss
Engines
- Unreal Engine 5.6, 5.7 and 5.8
- Installs as a precompiled plugin no build step, and nothing changed in the engine
- Validated against Unity 6.3 on URP and HDRP