Dousen + Unreal Engine 5

By Luca Vitiello · Updated 6 October 2026

Dousen imports published DCC assets into Unreal Engine 5.7 and 5.8 through the DousenUE plugin and Unreal’s Interchange framework. The plugin names and places each asset from your project conventions, reimports on republish, applies catalog materials, and adds Open in DCC to the Content Browser.

Supported: Unreal Engine 5.7 and 5.8 only (not 5.6 or earlier, not UE4).
Plugin: DousenUE, installed from Settings → Unreal with Install into .uproject. It needs PythonScriptPlugin and Interchange.
Settings: Config/DefaultDousenUE.ini in your Unreal project.
The plugin connects to DousenDesktop’s bridge on localhost, port 8766 by default.
Desktop shows Imported and saved in Unreal only after the packages are saved.

How does a published asset get into Unreal?

When you publish an instance from a DCC, DousenDesktop records it in Publish history and sends the import to the open editor. If no editor is open and headless import is on, Desktop imports in the background with UnrealEditor-Cmd. Dousen works out the asset’s name and folder, imports it with Interchange, applies materials and saves the packages.

How are assets named on import?

The plugin fetches your project’s naming conventions from DousenCore and refreshes them every 5 minutes. Before it creates an asset, Dousen checks the required tag dimensions, allowed values, taxonomy, package name and whether the asset exists. Without conventions it can’t import a new asset. A later reimport never renames an asset.

What happens when I publish again?

Meshes and animations that already exist reimport and keep their asset paths and stored import settings. Meshes you add to the source scene wait for your approval, and meshes you remove stay in the project. Right-click an imported mesh and choose Review instance topology to approve additions. Named geometry profiles from your conventions set options such as collision, normals and Nanite per instance.

How do I get back to the source file?

Select the task, then right-click a static mesh, skeletal mesh or texture in the Content Browser and choose Open in DCC. Desktop finds the source file, syncs it from Perforce if needed, and launches the DCC. If the project uses a separate source repository, Reimport (sync source) syncs the FBX and its sidecar and reimports only the selected asset.

Can artists pick materials from Unreal?

Yes. An admin creates a Dousen Material Catalog Data Asset in the project’s content and sets MaterialCatalog in Config/DefaultDousenUE.ini. Saving it while signed in to DousenDesktop as an admin reports the catalog to DousenCore. Artists then choose a catalog material per slot in the DCC, and the import binds textures into the material instances. On static meshes it also sets Nanite from the catalog’s Allow Nanite value.

Unreal Data Asset editor for a Dousen Material Catalog. One material, Harbor Coated Metal, has an ID, a material, the Allow Nanite option checked, and texture slots, scalar parameters and vector parameters. — A material catalog Data Asset with one entry.

Dousen also stamps convention tags and dousen_cv_* tags on each asset. You can search them from the Tag Search section of the Dousen tab.

Dousen is free during the studio beta, with access by request, and free forever for teams of up to 5 users. Request early access.