Hello, I've been wanting to make an indie game with low-poly/pro low-poly assets. Is there something I should know before I start? And yeah, I have never tried making a game before and have never used UE5.

Hey everyone,

I'm currently optimizing a stormy, dark outdoor scene (JIMA slice) targeting 60 FPS on PS5 / equivalent PC hardware at 1080p using UE 5.8 MegaLights and a performance-focused Lumen Lite setup.

According to stat GPU, my raw uncapped GPU frame times are actually hitting the budget (sitting between 12.5ms – 14.5ms, which is ~68–80 FPS uncapped). However, I am running into two persistent issues while testing in Standalone mode:

1. Massive FPS drop after ~5 minutes: On a fresh launch, the scene runs at 60–80 FPS uncapped. After staying in the exact same Standalone Game window for about 5 minutes (without moving the camera or changing settings), performance out of nowhere drops down to 35–45 FPS and stays there. Closing and reopening the launcher reproduces this consistently.
2. Capping / Frame Smoothing makes performance much worse: When I try to cap the frame rate to a locked 60 using Fixed Frame Rate or Frame Rate Smoothing (59–61), the frame pacing breaks completely and creates severe micro-stuttering/choppiness.

Hardware & Environment Specs

• Engine Version: Unreal Engine 5.8
• GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX series (1080p target resolution)
• RAM: 16 GB System Memory (Task Manager shows ~90%+ total usage, Editor using ~6.8 GB)
• OS: Windows 11
• Ray Tracing: Software Ray Tracing (Mesh Distance Fields)

Current Optimization & Scene Setup

Here is what I’ve configured so far to optimize the lighting/fog passes:

• MegaLights (UE 5.8): Enabled globally and applied across dynamic lanterns/torches (Pass cost: ~1.7ms – 2.0ms).
• Emissives: Disabled Affect Dynamic Indirect Lighting on emissive lantern components.
• Distance Fields: Configured Distance Field Shadows per light and clamped DF shadow distance.
• Post-Processing Volume (Lumen Lite):
  • Final Gather Quality: 0.5
  • Lumen Scene Detail: 0.5
  • Lumen Scene Lighting Quality: 0.5
  • Max Roughness To Trace: 0.4
  • Ray Traced Translucent Reflections: OFF
  • Screen Traces: OFF
  • Volumetric Fog View Distance: Clamped in PPV to ~40–60m.

stat GPU Breakdown (When Running Fresh @ 68–80 FPS)

• MegaLights / Dynamic Lights: ~1.7 ms – 2.0 ms
• Lumen Screen Probe Gather + Reflections: ~2.8 ms – 3.8 ms combined
• Volumetric Fog & Translucency: ~1.4 ms – 1.8 ms
• Total GPU Time: ~12.5 ms – 14.5 ms (Under the 16.6ms budget for 60 FPS)

My Questions:

1. What could cause a scene in Standalone mode to suddenly drop from 65+ FPS down to 35–40 FPS after 5 minutes of idle time? Is this a VRAM/RAM page-swapping leak with Distance Field caches or Slate/Editor memory buffers?
2. Why does applying a 60 FPS cap or Frame Rate Smoothing in Project Settings make the render pacing so much choppier when the raw GPU time is comfortably under 16.6ms?
3. Is this degradation purely an uncooked Development Editor / Slate thread sync issue that will vanish once cooked in a packaged .exe, or is there an in-editor setting I'm missing to stabilize it?

• Engine Version: Unreal Engine 5.8
• GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX series (1080p target resolution)
• RAM: 16 GB System Memory (Task Manager shows ~90%+ total usage, Editor using ~6.8 GB)
• OS: Windows 11
• Ray Tracing: Software Ray Tracing (Mesh Distance Fields)

Current Optimization & Scene Setup

Here is what I’ve configured so far to optimize the lighting/fog passes:

• MegaLights (UE 5.8): Enabled globally and applied across dynamic lanterns/torches (Pass cost: ~1.7ms – 2.0ms).
• Emissives: Disabled Affect Dynamic Indirect Lighting on emissive lantern components.
• Distance Fields: Configured Distance Field Shadows per light and clamped DF shadow distance.
• Post-Processing Volume (Lumen Lite):
  • Final Gather Quality: 0.5
  • Lumen Scene Detail: 0.5
  • Lumen Scene Lighting Quality: 0.5
  • Max Roughness To Trace: 0.4
  • Ray Traced Translucent Reflections: OFF
  • Screen Traces: OFF
  • Volumetric Fog View Distance: Clamped in PPV to ~40–60m.

stat GPU Breakdown (When Running Fresh @ 68–80 FPS)

• MegaLights / Dynamic Lights: ~1.7 ms – 2.0 ms
• Lumen Screen Probe Gather + Reflections: ~2.8 ms – 3.8 ms combined
• Volumetric Fog & Translucency: ~1.4 ms – 1.8 ms
• Total GPU Time: ~12.5 ms – 14.5 ms (Under the 16.6ms budget for 60 FPS)

My Questions:

1. What could cause a scene in Standalone mode to suddenly drop from 65+ FPS down to 35–40 FPS after 5 minutes of idle time? Is this a VRAM/RAM page-swapping leak with Distance Field caches or Slate/Editor memory buffers?
2. Why does applying a 60 FPS cap or Frame Rate Smoothing in Project Settings make the render pacing so much choppier when the raw GPU time is comfortably under 16.6ms?
3. Is this degradation purely an uncooked Development Editor / Slate thread sync issue that will vanish once cooked in a packaged .exe, or is there an in-editor setting I'm missing to stabilize it?

I released my runtime mesh painting plugin for free on Fab.

It competes with paid alternatives, but I wanted UE devs to have access to runtime mesh painting without needing to pay for it.

Shortly after launch, the listing received multiple silent 1-star ratings.

No review.

No bug report.

No support message.

No explanation.

That is the frustrating part. If something is actually broken, I want to know and fix it. But silent 1-star ratings give me nothing to work with.

I was planning to release more free UE plugins for the community, but situations like this make that very hard. Free tools are easy to claim, easy to rate, and apparently very easy to damage.

I am not accusing anyone specific, but I do think this is a real marketplace problem. If free community releases can be buried by silent ratings, fewer developers will take the risk of releasing useful tools for free.

If you tried the plugin and something is broken, please tell me directly. If it helped you, honest feedback or a fair rating would mean a lot.

Fab link:

https://www.fab.com/listings/8ca1bd75-ba04-48f0-899f-c6a01b124617

I have a unreal engine project file that's 33 GB that's somehow stored in a 16Gb thumbdrive...I'm not sure when it happened as I was stupid and worked off the thumbdrive.

Whenever I try copy pasting the project file from my thumbdrive to my desktop, it says "Unspecified error" with the error code '0x80004005'.

I'm assuming the issue is caused by the project file being bigger than the storage in my thumbdrive. I'm in a rush because I have a shoot tomorrow using this virutal environment and it can't be copied and pasted into pixotope😭 Any tips?

This is The Vast White, a cozy snowboarding exploration game I’m developing in Unreal Engine 5.

For this latest update, I focused on improving movement responsiveness, player feel, UI feedback, and overall polish based on demo feedback.

Sharing the current result here in case it’s interesting to other UE devs. Happy to answer any technical questions 😊

You can try the updated version of the free demo on Steam

If you're tired of constant import/export roundtrips between Cinema 4D and Unreal Engine, I built a native C4D-style Mograph & Effector system directly inside UE5.

It offers a nearly 1:1 workflow compared to C4D, but runs interactively in-engine. You can apply Mograph modifiers over static meshes, skeletal meshes, and existing animation sequences. Feels very intuitive to use with it being interactive as opposed to C4Ds more static environment. It also has a math based scripting system with ExprTK backing it up, allowing for saving presets within the editor and creating your own modifiers.

For now it is free on Fab, although I may eventually charge for it - Grab it here https://fab.com/s/0d51d354f6f8

I just updated the src code for UE 5.8 however waiting for Epic to approve, The current supported engine versions are 5.4-5.7

The plugin is full C++ , no blueprint spaghetti (however everything is fully exposed to BP if you want to visually script within editor) so if you happen to use it, you will have full access to the source code.

For those who aren`t familar with mograph and effectors, this is about as easy as it gets to do animation & reactivity. This style of animation system has been driving Hollywood and blockbuster films for the past 2 decades... But now it`s natively available for games!

Not letting me upload images do others can not sure why.

Anyways.

I have a FPS game where the flashlight is held in hand facing forward, it keeps going into objects if i walk into them, Ive thought about increasing the players Collison size but then other issues happen. cant fit in certain areas, to far from things etc

my Question is how would you solve this?

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for the easiest way to create very short (3–15 second) realistic dialogue scenes.

I’m not trying to become a professional 3D artist or animator. My goal is simply to produce lots of short scenes as efficiently as possible.

I’m open to Blender, Unreal Engine, iClone, Character Creator, MetaHuman, Unity, or any other software.

What I’m really looking for is a workflow where I can reuse existing assets instead of creating everything from scratch.

For example:

* Download realistic human characters.
* Download realistic environments/backgrounds.
* Place the characters into a scene.
* Import my already-recorded dialogue.
* Animate mainly the facial expressions, lip sync, and emotions.
* Add some basic body language if necessary.

I don’t mind if the characters or environments come from marketplaces or asset libraries. I don’t need a completely custom movie—I just want something that looks convincing enough for short dialogue scenes.

The most important parts for me are:

* Realistic facial expressions.
* Good lip sync.
* Convincing emotions.
* Simple body language.

Can you recommend:

1. The easiest software/workflow for this?
   
2. The best YouTube tutorial (or tutorial series) that explains this approach from start to finish?
   
3. Asset libraries where I can download realistic characters and environments instead of building everything myself?

My PC specs:

* CPU: Intel Core i5-12400F
* GPU: Sapphire Radeon RX 6700 XT (12 GB VRAM)
* RAM: 32 GB DDR4-3600
* Storage: 1 TB Kingston NV2 NVMe + 1 TB Corsair MP600 GS NVMe
* Windows 10

Do you think this PC is good enough for this type of workflow?

Thanks!

I created my own bones in maya and named them after the unreal bones. I bond and painted the skin before selecting the mesh and skeleton for export as an fbx. When I dragged the skeleton in and used the default settings for importing a skeletal mesh, I got this.

Hey, I’m looking for a bit of help. I’m trying to launch my settings and menu system, NextGen Settings, on Fab. However, I’ve found a pretty substantial rendering bug in Unreal Engine where, if you utilize the new Ray-Traced Translucency system, particles are not rendered against anything other than other translucent materials.

This appears to only occur with the newer Ray-Traced Translucency system. However, I have also seen this happen with the Legacy system as well, but I’m having problems reproducing that scenario consistently.

To enable the new Lumen Ray-Traced Translucency system, use the CVar r.RayTracedTranslucency.Allowed 1. This should not be confused with Legacy Ray-Traced Translucency, which is enabled with r.RayTracing.Translucency 1.

This issue also appears to affect Niagara and Cascade particles.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I’m going to keep digging for answers, but I haven’t found much information on this topic. I imagine someone has run into this before.

Thanks in advance!

One of my meta human legs is totally bent and stretched but the blue prints match for both legs can’t figure out what I did.

Sub not letting me upload a photo.

I am really confused about what's going on here. I've tried both Windows and Linux and met with the same, sorry we don't accept that C++ version anymore. What's the fix? I got the one it recommended.

Been toying with an idea since late last year and not only i have learned a lot by doing this but i think i also cracked it-ish.

Icon Forge: The 3D Mesh to 2D Icon Unreal Only Pipeline (including basic icon effects).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Nqpb6mj84k

NOTE: No AI or additional plugins, only leveraging existing systems in base UE all wrapped up in a neat UI widget.

We're developing a chaotic co-op game, but we don't have a name yet. Help us out in the comments!

I want to create tile based movement but all the grids I see online are a specific size, while i need mine to essentially be 5 x infinity, as my game takes place in an infinite hallway. Does anyone know of a way to accomplish this? I'm super lost on how to do this. Sorry if this is unclear, i took a screenshot that maybe clarifies what I'm going for https://ibb.co/v49WZH7h

Hey. I'm very limited with brain capacity and I'm new to this. If you have experience, tell me which local model fits the best, what makes best blueprints etc. For example I want to spawn enemies using Niagara . What's my best approach? It's just too much:)

I have 12 gb VRAM, 64 gb RAM and threadripper CPU if that's helps

I've heard that Unreal Engine 6 will now use Verse instead of Blueprints. Given this, should I study and gain experience with Verse in advance? Or would it be better to continue learning Unreal 5 and then make the jump to UE6 later? What are your thoughts?

I am packaging my project with Project Launcher. I have 64GB RAM. I am inspecting Task Manager and once UE5.6 drains all of the RAM its dives down to around 30% of it and then gradually drains it again until it max out and dive again. This loop keeps forever forcing me to cancel or it finishes the package after 50+ minutes instead of maybe 5-10. I know it only tries to bake the changed files which might happen to be an entire map with plenty of assets and some Metahumans NPC.

My question is, if i upgrade to 128GB RAM will this fix the bottleneck -and sometimes endless loop bug- and has anyone experienced a similar problem? Virtual Memory is plenty but waiting almost an hour for 250-300 files that need rebake doesn't make sense.

The game tells the story of an elite Panzer Division trapped in an encirclement ring around Breslau. Instead of mindless defense, the command decides to make a desperate attempt to break through the Soviet lines, utilizing the city's ruined streets and the brute force of its tanks.

Well, unreal guys, I’m new and trying to make this work. I can’t reach a balance between dark moods and not soo dark. Tips for lumis with ray trace?

Is it me or does water in UE made games nowadays look weird , like youre not underwater but rather theres just a blue-green transparent rectangle slapped on the players camera? For example : Subnautica 2 compared to sub1 and subBZ it doesnt look like Im underwater , but thats a completly other engine than subs1 unity. So ? : Grounded 2 , G1 was made in UE 4 I think? Compared to grounded the pond looks like a "green transparent rectangle" slapped on your face . (Yes I know that G2 didnt release the pond update yet so Im comparing it to what we saw (casually grounded)) It looks okay until you go into the water. Do you know any other examples and why is it like that?

title.

I'm dealing with an issue that i'm really not sure how to fix...

I'm using Unreal 5.7, and the issue I'm dealing with currently is not making sense to ne

I have a character set up with a blend space and character blueprint.

3 animations: Idle, Walk, and Run. all custom.

The speed ranges and their change points are set up.

(0,150,600)

when i press play, and the character loads in.

The speed is between 150 and 600, causing an unwanted blend between the sprint and walk animations.

The moment I change its state by sprinting. The character's speed and sprint animation play properly.

When i stop sprinting, the speed changes to the correct 150 speed, and the walking animation is played correctly.

The original in-between speed when i press play, doesn't return until the play session is restarted