Massive Herd-Lite is a new Unreal Engine system designed for creating large, believable herds of animated animals and creatures without requiring hundreds of individual AI-controlled actors.
The system uses instanced skeletal meshes to make it practical to populate large landscapes with hundreds of independently animated animals while keeping the setup simple.
Herd members can automatically transition between walking, grazing/eating, and idle behaviors while moving naturally across uneven terrain. The system is designed to work with your own skeletal meshes and animations, so it isn’t limited to the included animals.
As a demonstration, I recently set up a herd of 500+ animated Parasaurolophus using a custom dinosaur asset. The same workflow can be used for wildlife, livestock, prehistoric animals, fantasy creatures, or other animated characters.
Massive Herd-Lite includes:
-
Large animated herds using instanced skeletal meshes
-
Autonomous walking, grazing/eating, and idle behaviors
-
Terrain-following herd movement
-
Support for your own skeletal meshes and animations
-
Reusable custom herd presets and Blueprints
-
Included bison herd for getting started
-
Landscape/environment tools for quickly building natural herd environments
-
Designed for games, cinematics, visualization, and large outdoor scenes
One of my main goals was to make the workflow straightforward: add your animal and animations, create a herd preset, drop the herd into a landscape, and start experimenting with large populations without having to build an AI system for every individual animal.
I’ve also created a tutorial showing the complete process using a Parasaurolophus herd, including how to add a custom animal and turn it into a reusable herd.
Massive Herd-Lite v1.16 is available now on Fab.
I’d be very interested to hear what kinds of animals or creatures other Unreal developers would want to use with a system like this, as well as what features would be most useful for larger wildlife, dinosaur, or cinematic environments.