Best Practices for Architecting a Run-Time 3D Character Scene Inside UI

Hi everyone,

I’m currently working on a character settings screen with an interactive 3D character scene (e.g. God of War(2018)–style character screen).

At this stage, my primary goal is the correct architectural approach for rendering and managing a 3D character scene inside a UI flow, with a strong focus on long-term scalability and performance.

I’d really appreciate insights from people who have implemented similar systems or explored different approaches.

In particular, I’m interested in:

  • High-level architecture for a 3D character preview scene:

    • how you separate gameplay characters from UI/preview representations

    • how preview scenes are usually structured and owned

  • Recommended ways to embed or present a real-time 3D scene inside a character screen, from an engine-architecture perspective

  • Typical pitfalls or design decisions that are hard to change later once the system is in place

Thanks in advance to anyone willing to share their experience or lessons learned.