Installation and Setup

Installation & Setup

This page gets you from "just bought it" to "ready to follow the Quick Start."

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1. Enable the Deformer Graph plugin (do this first)

TensionFX runs as an Unreal Deformer Graph. That's an engine feature that ships disabled by default, so you have to turn it on once per project.

ELI5: A normal material can only look at one vertex at a time. Measuring stretch means comparing a vertex to its neighbors, and the only place Unreal lets you do that on the GPU is the Deformer Graph. So we need it on.

1. In the editor: Edit → Plugins.
2. Search for Deformer Graph.
3. Tick the checkbox to enable it.
4. Restart the editor when prompted.

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2. Add TensionFX to your project

1. In the Epic Games Launcher (or Fab library), find TensionFX and Add to project, choosing your project.
2. Re-open your project. The content lands under Content / TensionFX in the Content Browser.

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3. Tour the folders

There isn't a lot to look at — that's intentional. The package is small and asset-based. Everything lives under Content/TensionFX/.

Deformers/

The important stuff. Four Deformer Graph assets that do the actual measuring. You assign one of these to your mesh depending on what kind of mesh it is:

Asset	Use it for
DG_TensionFX_LBSkinning	Standard skeletal meshes driven by skinning (the basic case).
DG_TensionFX_Morph_and_MLDeformers	Meshes driven by morph targets / ML Deformer.
DG_TensionFX_MetaHuman_Body	A MetaHuman body.
DG_TensionFX_MetaHuman_Head	A MetaHuman face/head.

See How It Works for what's inside them.

Examples/

L_Examples is a ready-to-go demo level with light instructions baked into it. Open this first — it's the fastest way to see everything working and confirm your install is good. See Quick Start.

Alongside it:

• Sqworm/ — the squirmy worm (SK_sqworm), the simplest standard-mesh example, with its example material already referenced.
• Cylinder/ — a very basic bend example.
• MetaHumans/.../Skin/Material_Functions/ — the MetaHuman skin material-function replacements (MF_skin_bakedInputs, MF_skin_globalAdjustmentsPostBake, MF_skin_microSkinDetails, MF_skin_utils). The package does not ship a MetaHuman; see MetaHumans.
• MasterMaterials/ — debug/utility materials (M_TensionDebug, M_Wrinkler).

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What's not included (and why)

• No MetaHuman. MetaHumans are large and update often, so shipping one would bloat the package and break with every MetaHuman release. You bring your own — the package gives you the material functions and deformers to wire into it. See MetaHumans.

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Next: Quick Start: the Examples level →