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HELIX is in Closed Alpha. Some features and documentation may be non-functional or out of date.

July 7, 2026#

Build #20260624.20405.671#

🔔 Announcements#

This release is focused on maturing the new Character Creator rebuild we announced last release, see below for the full set of improvements.

As part of that work, the Character Creator plugin has been renamed to HELIX Character Creator (previously "Advanced Character Creator"), and the old character-creator implementation has been fully replaced. Any content that references the legacy CC types, plugin, or asset paths will need to be updated to the new system.

🚀 New/Improved Features#

🎨 Character Creator#

The new Mutable-based Character Creator we announced last release has seen extensive work this cycle, it's where most of this release's effort went. For a full overview of the new HELIX Character Creator and its documentation, please refer to the HELIX Character Creator documentation.

  • New Mutable based mesh merging implementation, and completely refactored replication logic. Merging complex clothing now only takes a few milliseconds, and clients always correctly see what others are wearing without any desync issues.
  • New Character Customization API. We're releasing a new Blueprint/Lua compatible API to query/manipulate clothing slots of characters in runtime within this version. Please check API reference for more details.
  • Every clothing slot supports per-item colour customization, driven by material tint. RGB-channel masking lets creators expose individual colour zones per garment and hide single channels.
  • A cascading slot-hide system automatically resolves conflicts between equipped items (masks vs. hats, gloves vs. hands, and so on), with user-defined rules within wearable data asset.
  • Face presets, independent body/head symmetry, and morph handles. Morphs now replicate correctly in multiplayer.
  • New metahuman heads, and optimized body meshes compatible with latest metahuman creator changes.
  • Hair gets a big library with per-strand physics simulation, colour tinting, and creator-configurable attachment offsets.
  • Full editing UX pass: undo/redo (including handles and visibility), improved colour picker, tooltips, preset save/load, per-slot camera framing, and a working discard/exit flow.
  • Custom character meshes: retargeting and post-process physics support for creator-supplied skeletons. Custom full-body character meshes now can include an IKRig retargeter and customize it for first person view mode.

🎒 Inventory (Work in Progress)#

Further progress on the native inventory rebuild from last release, now with server authority and persistence.

  • Drag-and-drop, arbitrary-sized inventories, context menus and item info panels.
  • Clothing items can be equipped directly to character slots.
  • Vehicle trunks are now real inventories; dropping a stack spawns a crate in the world; items carry weight.
  • Persistence across death and respawn, backed by a new Actor Management system that also gives placed vehicles and dropped items persistent IDs across sessions.

🗺️ Minimap & World Map#

A brand-new map system (HelixMap): pre-baked map tiles with zoom levels, live player tracking on dedicated servers, custom markers and waypoints, a map legend, and a Lua API for placing markers. Pacifica ships with its minimap baked.

🚗 Vehicles (Work in Progress)#

Continued fixes and polish for the Chaos-physics vehicles introduced last release:

  • Fixed your vehicle briefly dropping out from under you when driving fast between populated areas (a network-relevancy hand-off issue) — plus several suspension and teardown crash fixes.
  • Fixed several networking issues getting in and out of vehicles
  • Trunk-open interactions per vehicle
  • Fixed issue to HELIX Studio where hood and trunk meshes didn't show in the editor viewport.

🛠️ HELIX Studio & Packaging#

Further improvements to HELIX Studio, which replaced Creator Kit last release:

  • Filesystem data source, smarter dependency handling, a publish confirmation step, preview/thumbnail management
  • Wearable packages now get the correct default plugin dependency.

💻 Lua API#

  • New HTTP module for web requests with headers and body.
  • Deprecated the old K2_ method prefixes for a cleaner API.
  • HelixMap Lua wrapper and marker functions,
  • A new ReplicatedValuesComponent (a replicated key/value store usable from Lua and Blueprint).

🌐 Web UI#

Migrated from the old WebUI to a CEF-based UE Web Browser: spatial widgets with mono/multi audio, microphone access, a native HTTP client replacing the old JS interop layer, and multi-resolution image loading with CDN-scaled avatars.

🏙️ Pacifica#

Construction and polish continue across the map, building on the areas shown last release with a large new batch of districts, shops, and fixes.

  • New districts & landmarks: Miami Downtown, Wynwood expansion, Little Havana, Residential North & Park, Star Island, Dodge Island / Port Palmera industrial area, Hospital Island, City Hall, and the Convention Center.
  • Shops & interiors: gun shop, bank, car wash, barbershop, salon, tattoo shop, furniture store, ice-cream shop, cinema/theater, and casino.
  • Roads & traffic: districts rebuilt on Errant Path roads with lamp posts, drop curbs, and physics props (fire hydrants, street lights, bollards, mailboxes).
  • Water & lighting: swimming pools across villas/hotels/residential, night-lighting data layers activated per district, and full ocean/terrain rebuilds.
  • Boat yard, kayak/jetski rentals, foliage converted to HISM for performance, and a large volume of collision and set-dressing fixes.

⚙️ Engine, Build & Performance#

  • FastGeo streaming enabled on Pacifica (with related crash fixes), DLSS updated, and a new package loading screen.
  • Material consolidation across M_Base and the Pacifica master materials to cut duplication.
  • Build/infra: Docker image ~49% smaller with versioned/labelled images and secure login, re-runnable Jenkins pipelines, and Linux dedicated-server fixes.

⚠️ Known Issues#

Several systems above are marked (Work in Progress) — expect further passes on the Character Creator, inventory, and the medical/downed-state system. Driving between populated areas at very high speed can still momentarily affect vehicle handover. As always, let us know what you think — and if you run into bugs, submit this form 🐛

Let's keep making HELIX better, together 💪#