Art Direction & MetaHuman Pipeline

Canonical GDD content

Art direction — [CONFIRMED]

• Photoreal, using Nanite (geometry) and Lumen (GI/reflections).
• Modern post-apocalyptic mood: grounded, weathered, decayed contemporary world — overgrown towns, rusted vehicles, scavenged interiors, muted/desaturated palette with selective color for readability (loot, threats, UI).
• Readability is a pillar: even in a photoreal world, threats (zombies, players) and interactables must read clearly at gameplay distances and in third person.

Player characters — MetaHuman [CONFIRMED]

• Players use the MetaHuman pipeline (plugins MetaHuman, MetaHumanCoreTech, MetaHumanCharacter already enabled; Win64 + Linux supported).
• Workflow: author/import MetaHumans, store under Content/Lambeer/Characters/Player/MetaHumans/, drive with the player Anim BP.
• Cosmetic customization (outfits/skins) fits buy-to-play; cosmetic-only.

Character creation — curated, no runtime morph — [CONFIRMED scope] / [RECOMMENDATION pipeline]

• Players pick a curated preset (each preset is a fully pre-authored MetaHuman; male + female base bodies) and customize hairstyle (curated grooms), skin color (UMG color picker, HSV-clamped), and eye color (UMG color picker, free RGB). No face morph, no body scaling.
• Art tasks: author preset MetaHumans, curated groom/hair-card set (with LODs). Ensure MetaHuman materials expose SkinTint and IrisTint vector parameters (or document alternate names for engineering). No skin/eye swatch texture sets required for v1.
• [RISK] two base bodies ≈ double the character/animation-retarget authoring; grooms are costly at 40–60 players — cap detailed grooms, fall back to hair cards.
• Full system spec (data model, replication, persistence, barber): ../01-Gameplay/08-Character-Creation.md.

MetaHuman cost management — [RISK]

MetaHumans are expensive (memory, animation, shader complexity). Mitigations: - Use MetaHuman LODs aggressively; cap the number of fully-detailed MetaHumans rendered at once. - For a ~40–60-player server, profile worst case (many players in view, e.g., at a boss or raid) and set quality scalability accordingly. - Reserve full MetaHuman fidelity for the local player and nearby players; distant players use lower LODs.

Zombies — NOT full MetaHumans — [RECOMMENDATION]

• Zombies must use optimized custom skeletal meshes with shared materials and strong LODs — not individual MetaHumans. There can be many zombies on screen; MetaHuman-per-zombie would not scale.
• Use a small set of base zombie meshes + material/texture variation (decals, color, damage states) to create visual variety cheaply.
• Bosses can have bespoke, higher-detail meshes (few on screen at once).
• Store under Content/Lambeer/Characters/Zombies/ per ../05-Technical/03-Content-Folder-Structure.md.

Environment

• Nanite static meshes for architecture/props; modular kits for towns/POIs to build a dense world efficiently.
• Trim sheets / shared materials to control memory.
• Foliage and decals for the overgrown decayed look; instanced rendering for performance.

Performance budget — [RISK], targets [TBD]

• Photoreal open world + many MetaHumans/players + AI hordes is heavy. Establish target spec and frame budget early and profile continuously (client GPU: Nanite/Lumen/MetaHumans; server CPU: AI + replication).
• Provide scalability settings so mid-range PCs can run it.

Asset standards

• Follow naming/structure in ../05-Technical/03-Content-Folder-Structure.md.
• Texture budgets, poly/Nanite guidelines, and material complexity limits are [TBD] — define an art bible during pre-production.
• Melee weapons, tools, clothing, player skin/hair, zombies, and bosses that should show persistent blood need a per-mesh blood mask and a MID scalar path. Unmasked meshes show no stain. Spec: ../01-Gameplay/10-Blood-Visual.md. Parameter names [TBD].
• The same content family should expose a wetness MID scalar (WetAmount 0–1) so rain reads on skin, hair, worn clothes, and held gear. Unhooked meshes look dry. Spec: ../01-Gameplay/11-Wetness-and-Rain.md. Compose with blood; do not overwrite BloodAmount. Parameter names [TBD].
• Use the enabled Modeling Tools for in-engine blockouts/greyboxing during prototyping.