🕹️ The Club at the Center of the World

A Futuristic Dystopian Game Set in Cape Town (Unreal Engine 5.6)

📖 Overview

In The Club at the Center of the World, you play as a young man navigating a divided world where the ultra-rich control the city through an exclusive club called The Agora. Your mission is to infiltrate this hidden society and spark a revolution to take back control.

The game is built using Unreal Engine 5.6, featuring MetaHuman characters, a dynamic Gameplay Ability System (GAS), and customizable outfits using MetaTailor.

🛠️ Features

• Unreal Engine 5.6 is used exclusively as the game engine
• MetaHuman characters with custom clothing
• Gameplay Ability System (GAS) for abilities and attributes
• Dynamic inventory system
• Dystopian Cape Town environment
• Root motion animations and Motion Matching for realistic movement

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📦 Setting up Visual Studio and Unreal Engine 5.6

• Download Unreal Engine 5.6 - It's important that you use this version
• Download Visual Studio Community Edition 2022
• Generate VS Project Files
• In Unreal Engine, set IDE to Visual Studio 2022 and Refresh Solution from Tools -> Refresh Visual Studio Solution (This is important to get intellisense working)
• Set the Default Project to Aura and the Launch Mode to DebugGame Editor

Using Metahuman with retargeting ABP

1. Create metuhuman with the 5.6 metahuman creator tool
2. Update root class to be CBP_SandboxCharacter
3. Move Metahuman skeletal mesh under the base mesh
4. Ensure the Ability System has been configured inside the root of the Character
5. Disable visibility of the source retargeter (the orange skeletal mesh)
6. Ensure that you set Visibility Based Anim Tick Option to Always Tick Pose and Refresh Bones
7. Update your game mode to use the new character
8. Bonus, to use Live Link, make sure that SetUpdateAnimationInEditor use the correct root node, which should be the parent mesh of your meta human skeletal mesh
9. Enjoy :)

Deprecated since the move to 5.6 - Will be removed in future commits

📦 How to Add Custom Clothing for MetaHumans

This section explains how to add custom clothing to MetaHumans using MetaTailor and then import them into Unreal Engine.

✅ Step 1: Export the Head and Face FBX

1. In Unreal Engine, open your MetaHuman character.
2. Export the head and face FBX to use as a reference in MetaTailor.

✅ Step 2: Convert to 2013 FBX Using Autodesk FBX Converter

1. Download and install the Autodesk FBX Converter.
2. Use the tool to convert the exported FBX to FBX 2013 format.
   • This is required for compatibility with MetaTailor.

✅ Step 3: Download Clothes and Add to MetaTailor

1. Visit MetaTailor and upload the converted head and face FBX.
2. Download or design your clothing assets and add them to MetaTailor.

✅ Step 4: Export the Clothes from MetaTailor

1. In MetaTailor, export the clothing as an FBX file with the full avatar (free version).
2. Make sure to choose the correct settings for Unreal Engine compatibility.

✅ Step 5: Import into Blender and Adjust Orientation

1. Open the exported FBX file in Blender.
2. Remove the avatar mesh, leaving only the clothing items.
3. Rotate the clothing so that X is the forward vector (important for Unreal Engine).
4. Export each piece of clothing individually, making sure the root armature is selected.

✅ Step 6: Import into Unreal Engine

1. In Unreal Engine, import each clothing piece as a Skeletal Mesh.
2. Set the Target Skeleton to the MetaHuman skeleton during import.

✅ Step 7: Attach the Clothing to the MetaHuman in Unreal

1. Add the clothing item to your MetaHuman Blueprint.
2. Add a Skeletal Mesh component in the Blueprint and set the master pose component to the MetaHuman root skeleton.
3. In the Construction Script, use the Set Master Pose Component node to ensure the clothing follows the character's animations.

🎨 MetaHuman Custom Grooms Workflow (Blender to Unreal Engine)

This guide explains how to create custom hair grooms in Blender and import them into Unreal Engine for use with MetaHumans.

Video Guide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0PiYCDmjBk

🚀 Quick Tips for MetaHuman Clothing

• Ensure your clothing meshes are rigged to the MetaHuman skeleton.
• Always convert to FBX 2013 format before uploading to MetaTailor.
• Use Blender to clean up and adjust clothing items before importing into Unreal Engine.

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✅ Step 1: Import the Face Mesh into Blender

1. Open Blender and create a new project.
2. Import the MetaHuman face mesh by selecting File -> Import -> FBX.
   • Use the noah_face.fbx or the appropriate MetaHuman face mesh.
3. Once imported, press Tab to go into Edit Mode.

✅ Step 2: Prepare the Face Mesh

1. In Edit Mode, select all faces and press Alt + J to convert any tris to quads.
2. Use the Circle Select Tool (C) to select the area of the face where the hair will be painted.
   • Be precise about the selection, depending on your hairline or groom design.
3. After selecting the desired faces, press P and choose Selection to split the selected area into a new mesh.

✅ Step 3: Unwrap the UVs

1. With the new mesh selected, press Tab to go into Edit Mode.
2. Press A to select all vertices.
3. Press U to open the UV Mapping menu and select Unwrap.
4. Switch to UV Editing Mode to adjust the UV map if necessary.

✅ Step 4: Add an Empty Hair Groom

1. Go back to Object Mode.
2. Keep the face mesh selected, then press Shift + A -> Curves -> Empty Hair to add an empty hair groom.
3. Select the empty hair groom, go into Sculpt Mode, and start painting the hair.

✅ Step 5: Interpolate the Hair Curves

1. At the bottom of Blender’s interface (next to the timeline), click on Assets.
2. Drag and drop the Interpolate Curves Node onto the groom in the viewport to start shaping the hair.
3. Use different sculpting tools to adjust the hair volume, length, and flow as needed.

✅ Step 6: Apply Modifiers

1. Once you're happy with the groom, apply the modifiers from top to bottom in the Modifier Stack.
2. Make sure to finalize any grooming adjustments before applying the modifiers.

✅ Step 7: Convert Hair Curves to Particle System

1. Select the groom curves object in Object Mode.
2. Go to Object -> Convert -> Convert to Particle System.
   • This will prepare the groom for export.
3. Go to Particle tab at the bottom right and Didsable Show emitter under Render and Viewport, also set Steps to 7 under both.
4. Also make sure there are no vertex groups on the mesh because Unreal with assume it's a static mesh instead of a Grrom

✅ Step 8: Export the Hair as an Alembic File

1. With the mesh (not the hair curves) selected, go to File -> Export -> Alembic (.abc).
2. Use the following settings for export:
   • Scale: 100x
   • Selected and Visible Objects: Enabled
   • Frame Start/End: 1
   • Settings: Viewport
   • Geometry: Deselect all options under this category.

✅ Step 9: Import the Hair into Unreal Engine

1. Open Unreal Engine and go to your MetaHuman project.
2. Make sure you have the Alembic Groom Importer Addon installed in Unreal.
3. Import the Alembic file by selecting File -> Import Into Level.
4. Create a Groom Binding and Attach to Face Mesh -> In this case the custom metahuman face mesh we created
5. Attach the groom to your MetaHuman Blueprint and adjust its settings to fit your character.
6. Also Add the binding to the groom asset

🛠 Troubleshooting Tips

• Hair Appears Offset or Misaligned:
  Ensure that normals are correctly recalculated in Blender before exporting.

• Hair Bugging out in Blender:
  Create a new Project and import the Face Mesh and start from scratch. Sometimes Hair Curves collide for some reason.

• Hair Not Showing in Unreal Engine:
  Double-check your Alembic import settings and ensure you are using Groom components in Unreal.

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📦 Resources

Metahuman

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_ZjsUg2XCc - Metahuman customisation - Everything you need to know about Unreal to Blender and vice versa

IK

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SM_AR-oZ-1k - Full body IK solver