From AI Reference to a Drivable Car in Unreal Engine 5

Ever wanted to drive your AI-generated car in Unreal Engine 5? This is the complete pipeline — from generating references with AI, to Blender cleanup and rigging, all the way to a fully drivable vehicle with working physics.

No shortcuts. No "it just works" magic. This is the real workflow that actually produces production-safe results.

Free Download: I'm sharing the complete rigged FBX file from this tutorial. Skip straight to the Unreal Engine section if you want to learn the UE5 setup first.

Download FBX (17MB)Try AI Generators

Reference Preparation

Everything starts with reference preparation. This happens before you even open Blender or Unreal.

The most important rule is simple:

🚗 The car must be split into two separate elements:

Body — the car chassis (no wheels)
Wheels — generated separately

Generating everything in a single pass almost always results in broken geometry and unusable meshes. Trust me — separate generation saves hours of cleanup later.

Multi-view car reference with separate wheels — Multi-view reference setup: body from multiple angles + wheels generated separately

Body Prompt Guidelines

Your body prompt should describe a clean, readable shape — not a production-ready asset. The AI handles shape; you handle the polish.

Recommended constraints:

• car without wheels
• visible wheel cutouts
• orthographic views
• At least four angles: side, front, rear, top (optional)

⚠️ Why You Should Avoid Interior and Glass

Strong recommendation: avoid interior and avoid transparent glass. Windows should be tinted or opaque.

Most generators currently fail at transparency. They mix interior and exterior geometry, destroy topology, and create visual noise. The result looks fine in a render and becomes useless in real-time 3D.

Clean geometry always wins. You can add proper glass and interior later in Unreal — but you can't easily fix broken AI geometry.

Wheel Generation

Wheels are generated separately due to their simple form. A basic prompt is enough:

• side view
• tire profile view

This provides correct proportions and geometry suitable for rotation and physics. Using a generator with LowPoly Smart Mode works extremely well here — clean shapes, controlled polygon count, stable results.

Multi-View Car Generation

With all references ready, generate the car using a multi-view workflow, supplying all prepared images.

Hunyuan 3D multi-view generation settings — Hunyuan 3D settings for multi-view car generation

Tripo AI generation settings — both tools work great for this workflow

Model Optimization (Critical for UE5)

Before importing into Unreal Engine, your model must be optimized. AI-generated meshes often have way too many polygons for real-time rendering.

Target: below 50K triangles — ideally around 30-50K for a vehicle that performs well in-game. A 1M poly mesh will destroy your framerate.

You have two main options:

Option 1: Decimate in Blender

• Add Decimate modifier
• Use Collapse mode
• Adjust ratio until you hit ~50K tris
• Apply the modifier

Pro: Full control, free

Option 2: Hunyuan 3D Studio AI Retopology

• Use built-in AI Topology feature
• Set target poly count
• AI preserves important details better
• Cleaner edge flow for animation

Pro: Better topology, faster

For vehicles with sharp edges (like this 911), Blender's decimate works fine. For organic shapes or characters, AI retopology usually gives better results.

Blender Cleanup (Mandatory)

After importing AI-generated meshes into Blender, cleanup is mandatory. AI geometry almost always contains duplicated vertices, which later cause holes, shading issues, and broken physics.

Merge by Distance

# For each imported mesh:

1. Enter Edit Mode

2. Select all (A)

3. Run Merge by Distance

This removes overlapping vertices and prevents invisible gaps in geometry.

Shading Setup

1. Switch to Object Mode

2. Right-click the mesh

3. Select Shade Auto Smooth

This ensures correct normal smoothing and clean reflections — critical for car body panels.

Wheel Placement & Naming

With body and wheels ready, continue working in Blender.

Wheel Placement:

• Manually place wheels into the body
• Each wheel must have its origin at the exact center
• Use Set Origin → To Geometry

Correct pivot placement is essential for proper wheel rotation in Unreal.

Blender mesh naming setup — Consistent mesh naming: body, FL, FR, RL, RR

Orientation & Naming:

• Rotate the car so it faces positive X
• Body mesh: body
• Wheels: FL, FR, RL, RR (Front Left, Front Right, Rear Left, Rear Right)

Reset Transforms

Before rigging:

Apply Rotation and Scale: Ctrl + A → Rotation and Scale

Ensure Scale = 1 on all meshes

Vehicle Rigging in Blender

Use the free addon: Unreal Engine Vehicle Base Rigging Addon

Get the Free Addon

Blender UE4 Vehicle Rigging Addon setup — The UE4 Vehicle Rigging Addon simplifies the entire process

Rigging Steps:

Assign the vehicle base mesh
Assign all wheels
Run Upscale Object
Run Set Unit Scale
Click Rig Vehicle

Export from Blender

Export Settings:

• Format: FBX
• Forward: X
• Up: Z
• Disable Add Leaf Bones
• Disable animation export

Unreal Engine 5 Project Setup

Create the project using the Vehicle (Chaos Vehicle) template. This ensures:

Chaos Vehicle Movement Component is available
Correct input mappings
Proper physics defaults

Enable Chaos Vehicles Plugin

1. Go to Edit → Plugins

2. Search for Chaos

3. Enable Chaos Vehicles Plugin

4. Restart the editor

Import & Physics Asset Setup

After importing the FBX, you should have: Static Mesh, Skeletal Mesh, and Physics Asset. Start with the Physics Asset.

Correct FBX import in Unreal Engine 5 — Correctly imported assets — Static Mesh, Skeletal Mesh, and Physics Asset

Physics Asset body collision setup — Physics Asset — body collision configuration

Wheel Collision:

• Select all wheel bones
• Set Primitive Type to Capsule
• Generate bodies

Body Collision:

• Select the root/body
• Use Single Convex Hull or Box
• Generate collision

Wheel Physics Settings

Critical: For each wheel body, set:
• Physics Type → Kinematic
• Collision Response → Disable

If you skip this, your car will launch into space on spawn. Don't ask how I know.