Integration · Engines · Unreal Engine 5
Unreal Engine 5, Driven by the Show
The free CueSync for Unreal plugin receives the CueSync Bus over OSC — beat, energy, key and phrase as material parameters — and, paired once, follows your cues and timecode.
Unreal Engine 5 spec sheet
Screen capture · v1.0.35 · Palette
| Speaks | OSC |
|---|---|
| Built for | Unreal Engine 5.8 · CueSync for Unreal plugin (free) · Unreal on macOS or Windows · CueSync on Apple Silicon MacsVerified in-engine with the free CueSync for Unreal plugin. |
| Editions | In DJTheatreProduction |
| Manual | /docs/connect/unreal |
The output is in every edition. A capability marked with an edition needs that edition.
What CueSync sends to Unreal Engine 5
| The Free CueSync for Unreal Plugin | It receives the CueSync Bus over your network, and any material or Niagara system can read it, with no C++. |
|---|---|
| Beat Phase and Anticipation | The plugin's own phase clock smooths the beat between packets, and Anticipation ramps toward the next drop, so the world arrives with it instead of after it. |
| Accent Events in Blueprint | Bursts, drops, camera cuts, camera moves and screen media arrive as Blueprint events you bind your own art to. |
| Drop-on Drivers | Fixture groups, lights, Niagara, materials, post-process and camera shake follow the bus from a component — no Blueprint graph. |
| Cue State and Timecode | Pair once and Unreal follows the show over a reliable paired connection: released cues let go cleanly, and Level Sequences chase CueSync's show clock. |
| Stock Remote Control Too | A Look can call a function on a Remote Control preset of your own with one plain OSC call. The plugin is not involved, so nothing checks the name for you. |
Set it up
Unreal Engine 5 with CueSync, in 5 steps.
- 1Install the free CueSync for Unreal plugin in an Unreal Engine 5.8 project and enable it in Edit → Plugins; it turns on the stock OSC and Niagara plugins it needs.
- 2Drag a CueSync Bus Manager actor into your level and press Play.
- 3In CueSync, open Settings → Network Outputs, add an Unreal Engine 5 output, and point it at the Unreal machine's address, on the port the plugin manual gives.
- 4Optional: paste the pairing token the plugin's Monitor shows into the output, so Unreal also follows your cues and timecode.
- 5Press Test Connection to confirm the device is on the network and answering — it works before you subscribe, so you can check the wiring first. With a subscription, fire a cue and watch it land.
Integration details
Specifics that hold up in production
What CueSync's Unreal Engine 5 integration does and how it behaves — the things you can check before the show.
- Unreal Engine 5 — over your local network
- CueSync sends the CueSync Bus to the CueSync for Unreal plugin as one-way OSC. Pair once and cues and timecode also travel on a reliable control channel, and the plugin's Monitor serves the pairing page. Keep all of it on your local network. Separately, a Look can set an exposed property or call an exposed function on a Remote Control preset of your own, through Unreal's own Remote Control OSC protocol and without the plugin.
- Beat-aligned timing
- CueSync times cues to the beat phase of the music and is designed for live production. What you see and hear end to end also depends on your network, console or media server, and fixtures, so confirm the whole chain on your own rig before a show.
- 17 output protocols, one application
- CueSync ships 17 output protocols from a single desktop application: grandMA2 (Telnet), grandMA3 (TCP OSC and UDP OSC), Avolites Titan, ETC Eos, ChamSys MagicQ, Art-Net, sACN, Resolume, disguise (d3), VIOSO Player/Show, AV Stumpfl Pixera, TouchDesigner, Unreal Engine 5, QLab 5, MIDI Show Control, Pangolin BEYOND, and Custom OSC. Every CueSync edition includes every protocol.
Unreal Engine 5 questions
- The free CueSync for Unreal plugin is the supported path: it receives the bus, makes it readable from any material, and adds the phase clock, the accent events, the drivers, and — once paired — cues and timecode. Stock Unreal also works without it: the bus is plain OSC that Unreal's own OSC plugin can bind in Blueprint, and a Look can call any function a Remote Control preset of your own exposes.
- Free on Fab, Epic's marketplace. Get it from the listing at https://www.fab.com/listings/b2a99a27-9381-4184-af68-e94473fdde21; the CueSync for Unreal page, cuesync.live/unreal, has the setup guide.
- Both — continuous beat phase, energy, key-derived hue, phrase and a three-band split, plus discrete accent events on beats, phrases and drops.
- The plugin is built for Unreal Engine 5.8, on macOS or Windows. CueSync itself is a macOS app for Apple Silicon; a Windows Unreal machine is driven from a Mac running CueSync on the same network.
Different question? Ask us directly.
Ready to Automate Your Stage?
Download CueSync free and run the built-in demo show — press Space and its cues fire against simulated outputs, no hardware required. Subscribe when you're ready to drive a real rig.
Unreal® and Unreal Engine® are trademarks of Epic Games, Inc. CueSync is an independent product and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Epic Games.