Hi all,
We wanted to let everyone know where we are at in terms of recent or upcoming improvements to Fab.
FAQ & Changelogs on product listing pages (
Live)
About a week ago we released the FAQ and Changelog features.
Publishers can share answers to common user questions by utilising the optional FAQ section available for each product page. Each listing supports up to 20 questions.
For more direct question asking and answering, consider using the Comments Thread feature we launched in March.
The Changelog feature lets publishers add release notes with each listing update. Updates could include bug fixes, new content, or compatibility changes. Product changelogs offer customers a clear record of what’s changed and signals that a product is being actively maintained.
After making edits to a live listing (“Update - Draft”), publishers can add release notes to the changelog field in the listing editor, located below the description field. After the update is approved and published, these notes will be added to the top of the changelog on the product page, along with the update date. If you choose not to write release notes, a placeholder message will appear in the changelog for that date. For this first release you cannot yet edit past release notes once your update goes live; each entry in the changelog is tied to publishing a new version of the listing.
Individual Sales ( Live)
Roughly two weeks ago, we released the functionality for Fab publishers to set up their own sales. This allows publishers to create their own opportunities for self-promotion rather than having to rely on Fab’s site-wide sales. It also means that Fab’s customers can enjoy discounts on a variable assortment of products, year-round. You can check out what’s on sale now here: fab.com/sale.
As part of this release, we’ve introduced quick access to sale items via the left nav.
Taxonomy Changes ( Partially Live - 
Partially in progress)
We have been working on making the category tree cleaner and easier to understand, with less overlap between categories and listing types.
The taxonomy tree in the left nav now has listing types divided into groups, and the 3D category is expanded by default.
The Smart Assets listing type was removed, and its contents were merged into the other listing types. The name of the 2D Assets listing type was changed to “Sprites & Flipbooks” to make its purpose clearer.
Soon, we will merge the Environments listing type with the 3D listing type, so that Environments and 3D/Scenes come together.
Additionally, a number of small and rarely used subcategories will be removed or merged, several new subcategories will be added where needed (e.g. “Animals” category), and we will be creating a stronger distinction between Game Systems and Tools & Plugins by adding a unique set of subcategories to each.
We will also add the most popular search blades to the landing page for quick access. Here’s an example of some (not all) of such blades:
More info can be found in this post
MetaHuman ( Live)
The MetaHuman team just released a huge update, part of which is that you can now create MetaHumans using the MetaHuman Manager in Unreal Engine. As a result, you can buy and sell MetaHuman characters and MetaHuman-compatible assets (grooms & clothing) on Fab that have been verified and packaged using the MetaHuman Manager in .mhkpg format.
To find them, simply look for the MetaHuman format type, or browse the MetaHuman channel on the Fab website. The channel is already populated with some awesome content.
These MetaHuman listings can also be directly added to your UE (5.6 and above) projects via Fab in Unreal Engine.
More info can be found in the Metahuman documentation pages.
Fab in the Epic Games Launcher ( In progress)
We are integrating Fab into the Epic Games Launcher with the type of functionality you may be familiar with from Quixel Bridge, as a major step forward in improving workflow and asset pipeline.
The full Fab web experience within the Launcher will allow you to browse and acquire content just like you can on the web.
Noteworthy is that the product detail page will show up as a panel on the right side, allowing you to rapidly browse through assets.
Fab in Launcher will let you select multiple assets at once, and download or export them all with one click, or add them all to your project in one go.
Content will be downloaded via the Launcher’s download manager. And as you browse you can see assets that you’ve already downloaded or filter on assets on disk in My Library, speeding up your workflow if later on you wish to use these same assets for another project too.
And most importantly - Fab in the launcher will allow you to connect directly with Unreal Engine, Unity, Cinema4D, Blender, 3DSMax, and Maya enabling you to export one or multiple Fab assets with a single click to your tool of choice.
For the first version, we’ll be supporting one-click exports for standard exchange formats—including Megascans content—across popular engines and DCCs such as Unreal Engine, Unity, Cinema4D, 3DSMax, Blender, and Maya.
While this will cover a wide range of use cases, there will be some limitations in the initial release. For example, while exchange formats will be exported to the DCC or engine, in some cases, the content may not be fully set up depending on how the content was packaged or how the target tool handles importing. Similarly, DCC native formats (like .c4d, .ma) directly to DCCs will not be supported at launch.
We are nearing the end of development on this first phase of Fab in the launcher, after which we will be moving on to testing, with a release this summer.
Text Reviews ( In Progress)
We are actively working on adding text reviews to Fab. It will be integrated into the existing star review system and we plan on carrying over the legacy reviews from the UE Marketplace over to Fab. We are currently looking at a late Summer, early Fall release.
Fab License Summarized ( Live)
The Fab Standard License now has an easy to understand summary at the top of the license page.
Smoothing out the publishing flow ( In dev or starting dev soon dependent per item)
We are looking at several improvements in the publishing flow for sellers.
Every piece of content on Fab goes through our moderation pipeline to make sure it is suitable for Fab - however, we know that some changes don’t need manual review. For example, prices are selected from a controlled list of values, therefore changing prices should not need manual review. In the next few weeks we are looking to streamline our review process, so that safe edits can quickly be made live, and manual review is only needed for free text entries and other user-generated content like images.
Currently we support multiple versions of UE content, and we are going to introduce a similar feature for Unity content. Sellers will be able to upload multiple Unity versions that target different Unity versions, or different Unity renderers.
Lastly, we have some improvements to the upload speeds in progress.
Exclude Publisher Feature ( In Progress)
We will be expanding the current “Include Publisher” filter to also have the ability to exclude specific publishers as well. We will also be adding that filter to My Library, so you can now include or exclude specific publishers on acquired content.
3D viewer Update ( Live)
A range of viewer improvements and bug fixes went live last week - some highlights are:
- Keyboard shortcuts similar to the one in Sketchfab have been added to the inspector:
- 1: Cycle between Final and Raw render (no post process):
- 2: Cycle between material channels
- 3: Switch to MatCap rendering
- 4: Display the UV Checker
- 5: Display the Wireframe
- Add Opacity and Cutout material channels added to the inspector
- The viewer Settings menu has been reworked to match the one in the editor
- In the publishing portal:
- Better User messages notifications: Info messages are now displayed in green at the bottom right of the screen. (like “Save successful”)
- Added an overcast environment to the lighting
Next up for the 3D viewer is subsurface scattering support, and then after that improved UV inspection tools: A 2D UV view, and displaying UV seams.
