Can You Use Quixel Megascans Assets in Unity? If so, How?

Quixel Megascans is one of the biggest photoscanned asset libraries with large selections of highly-optimized photorealistic assets, both 2D and 3D, that you can import and use in your game. And all of these amazing assets are FREE to use…only if you use them in Unreal projects. Then what about Unity or other game engines?

Quixel Megascans assets can be used in any Unity project as long as the user’s account holds an appropriate subscription and have enough Points to buy assets. Megascans assets that have been downloaded can then be used commercially for projects even after the subscription has ended.

And so the answer is yes, you can use Megascans assets in Unity. Some assets are free to download, and some are not, in which case, you need to purchase them with points. I suggest taking a look at Quixel’s Pricing page for more information on subscription plans.

How Do I Get Free Megascans Assets?

All Megascans assets are completely free if they are used for Unreal projects.

But for any non-Unreal project, only the assets listed under the Free section in Quixel Megascans library are free.

How Do I Know If I have A Quixel Subscription?

You can see your currently active subscription on the Quixel Account page. There, you will be able to see your current plan and make adjustments to the payment settings.

If you have an Epic Games account, chances are, you already have the Unreal Unlimited license.

Note that if you have the Unreal Unlimited license, you will need a separate account for the paid license to be able to buy assets for non-Unreal projects.

You can also contact Quixel’s support to change your license, but you will lose your current Unreal Unlimited license. It’s better to have a separate account for the paid license for non-Unreal projects.

How Do I Export Quixel Megascans Assets to Unity?

To get Megascans assets for Unity, you can download them as zip files from the Quixel Megascans website. But for convenience, I suggest using Quixel Bridge to export them directly to your projects.

Quixel Bridge is the client for browsing and managing Quixel Megascans assets. It has the ability to export assets at your desired quality to any of the supported software.

Once you’ve downloaded and installed it. Log in with your Quixel account, or create an account if you don’t have one yet.

Before you do anything else, select any of the assets to open the asset details window.

At the bottom right of your screen, you should be able to see the resolution dropdown. Click on the Settings icon next to it and select Export Settings.

Make sure Export Target is set to Unity.

Once you’ve selected it and if your Quixel Bridge client doesn’t already have the Unity plugin package, there will be a download button right below the dropdown box. Click on it to download.

You will then be required to import the Megascans Importer package to your Unity project.

Navigate to Assets > Import Package > Custom Package..., this will bring up the file selection window.

Browse to and select Megascans Importer Unity package. It should be inside /Megascans Library/support/plugins/unity.

Select all and click Import. Wait for Unity to finish importing the package and you should be able to see the Bridge Plugin window.

If you can’t see the window, or if you accidentally close it, you can reopen it again by going to Window > Quixel > Megascans Importer.

You can play around with the settings or leave it at default. At this point, you can close the plugin window and go back to Quixel Bridge.

Buy any Megascans asset you want. Once you’ve bought it, there will be an option to download it.

Pick your desired resolution and click on the Download button. Higher resolutions take more time to download, eat more space, and lower your game’s performance so choose one that’s appropriate for your project.

Once the asset has finished downloading, the Export button should light up and become enabled. Click on the Export button and it will start exporting the asset to the Unity project you have open at the moment.

Exported assets, by default, are stored under /Quixel/Megascans, organized into their appropriate categories, in your project’s Assets folder. The export destination can be changed in the Bridge Plugin’s settings.

And that’s it! To use it, all you have to do is drop the prefab onto a scene.

Note: If the exported Megascans assets turned pink in Unity, this is most likely caused by a mismatch between the shader type and your current project’s Render Pipeline. Make sure the Megascans assets are exported with the correct shader type. I suggest you go over to my guide on how to fix Megascans assets turning pink and how to prevent it from happening in the future for more details.

Final Thoughts

I hope this has been a good read for you. Quixel Megascans assets are top-notch and I like using them a lot in my projects. I highly recommend them if you’re looking for good photo-scanned assets that are well-optimized even for games.

I’ll see you again in the next article!