Popul8 v4.0 · Live · Unreal 5.5 + Unity 6 supported

From heroes to armies,
in minutes.

Popul8 is the AI-powered character engine that turns a single base template into thousands of game-ready NPCs — instantly fitted, fully rigged, and exported straight into Unreal, Unity or your proprietary pipeline.

10K+
Characters / Template
95%
QA Auto-Pass
40+
Studios Trust Us
3x
Faster to Ship
POPUL8 · LIVE
A
NPC_001
K
NPC_002
M
NPC_003
R
NPC_004
S
NPC_005
N
NPC_006
L
NPC_007
D
NPC_008
J
NPC_009
Trusted by Avalon Playable Worlds Colossal Order Riot Games Epic Games Unity
// Popul8 Console ● Running
10,247chars
Generated
2.4min
Elapsed
99.2%
QA pass
import template"hero_base_v3.fbx"
→ fitting 847 deformables · OK
→ generating shape variants · 9,200 queued
→ running intersection_solver · no collisions
→ exporting to Unreal Engine 5.5 · DONE
The Popul8 engine

Automate the tedious. Master the creative.

Built by artists who shipped AAA games, Popul8 collapses weeks of manual character work into a one-click pipeline. Focus your team's hours on art direction — let our engine handle variation, fit, QA and export.

Instant NPC & crowd generation

Generate thousands of fully-rigged, high-quality characters with your topology, your specifications and built-in QA — ready to drop in.

Automated asset fitting

Adapt new assets across all characters, or apply the entire asset library to a new variant — automatically. No more per-character manual work.

Engine-ready export

Characters and assets are fully optimized for Unreal, Unity or proprietary platforms — clean naming conventions, matching topology, no rework.

3D from 2D

Turn face photos, concept art or two base templates into fully-detailed 3D characters — complete with bespoke features and synthetic generation.

Three ways to ship

From artist tooling to runtime character creation.

Popul8 ships in three forms — pick the depth that matches your team's workflow. All three share the same asset format, so you can mix and match.

Popul8 Standalone

Desktop application for character artists and tech-art teams. Shape editor, asset library, crowd render — full creative control on your local machine.

$ popul8 standalone --open template.hero

Popul8 SDK

Runtime API for game engines and live applications. Generate, customize and dress characters in real-time, inside your shipped product.

// sdk.popul8.instantiate(template)

Popul8 CLI

Headless command-line tool for CI/CD pipelines. Automate crowd generation overnight and publish straight to your asset server.

npm i -g @didimo/popul8-cli
The 5-step pipeline

From single template to shipped crowd.

Same workflow used by Colossal Order for Cities: Skylines II and Avalon's open-world RPGs — battle-tested on millions of generated characters.

STEP · 01

Import template

Bring your base character — your topology, your rig, your art style.

STEP · 02

Define shapes

Set body and head variations in the Shape Editor, or import from Maya / Blender.

STEP · 03

Upload assets

Drop in deformables, garments, hair and gear. Popul8 learns the rules.

STEP · 04

Generate crowd

Hit generate. Watch thousands of NPCs render in real-time, QA-passed.

STEP · 05

Export to engine

Bridge straight into Unreal, Unity or your pipeline. Ship.

Cities: Skylines II · Colossal Order "Popul8's scalability and efficiency has been indispensable in achieving our ambitious vision."
Case study
We produced more, better-looking characters than we could have by ourselves. Popul8 changed how our entire art team works.
Jeff ButlerCPO of Avalon · ex-EverQuest · ex-Blizzard
From the studios

Powering the world's most ambitious games.

We are delighted that Popul8 has such flexible character customization that helps our artists deliver their magic faster.
RK
Raph Koster
CEO · Playable Worlds
The scalability and efficiency of Popul8 was indispensable in achieving our ambitious vision for Cities: Skylines II.
MH
Mariina Hallikainen
CEO · Colossal Order
Your team is killing it! We're going to make an incredible character creator — something never done before.
SP
Sean Pinnock
CEO · Avalon
Pricing

Pick your Popul8.

From indie self-service to enterprise integration. All plans include full engine export and asset library.

Popul8 Express

// INDIE
$149 / month
Self-service character generation for small studios and solo devs.
  • 1 template · unlimited variations
  • Up to 1,000 NPCs / month
  • Unreal + Unity exports
  • Community support
Start free trial

Popul8 Enterprise

// AAA
Custom
For AAA publishers shipping flagship titles with dedicated pipelines.
  • Unlimited templates · custom work
  • Unlimited NPCs · on-prem deployment
  • Dedicated solutions engineer
  • SLA + 24/7 support
Talk to sales
Get started

From a single template to a living world.
Let's see what you'd build.

Tell us about your project — we'll set up a 30-minute working session with one of our solutions engineers and walk through Popul8 against your existing pipeline.