Live Link Face vs Meta XR Audio SDK

Live Link Face captures facial performances and generates animation for MetaHuman characters in Unreal Engine. The iOS app supports real-time and processed animation and can capture raw video and depth data for the MetaHuman plugin. Epic describes the Android app as a beta for real-time MetaHuman facial animation. Animation streams over a network to Unreal Engine through the MetaHuman Live Link plugin; the phone and computer must be connected to a network. App settings include OSC connections for external controllers and devices. Android timecode can use the system clock, an NTP server, or a Tentacle Sync device for multi-device synchronization. Real-time Android animation is limited to certain Qualcomm chipsets, and Snapdragon 8s chipsets are unsupported; Android does not support capture for offline processing. Live Link Hub can download recorded media from Android and iOS devices and trigger recording on a connected phone. The app is free on iOS and Android. The App Store listing requires iOS 16 or later, while Epic’s workflow description specifies an iPhone 12 or later and a Windows 10/11 desktop PC.

Meta XR Audio SDK is a free development SDK for adding spatial audio to immersive VR and MR applications. It runs on Windows and Android, including Meta Quest development targets, and supports Unity, Unreal Engine, FMOD, and Wwise. HRTF-based object and ambisonic spatialization helps listeners locate sounds in three-dimensional space. The SDK also models room acoustics through reflections and reverberation for spatialized audio. Meta documents plugins for each supported engine or middleware. The Unreal plugin works with the Unreal Audio Engine independently of the Meta XR Plugin. Unity packages are distributed through the Meta Horizon Developer Center and Unity Asset Store. Version 85.0 is the final release, and development is feature-frozen. Compatibility with future engine and middleware versions is not guaranteed, and acknowledged bug reports may not receive fixes. The Wwise plugin is supported through Wwise Launcher and Audiokinetic, while Meta’s Wwise documentation will no longer be updated. The listed plan costs nothing.