Open-World Narrative · Reference & analysis

V5 — Dependency Registry (Open-World Narrative Universe, Unreal Engine 5)

This file is the V5-scoped dependency contract.

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Scope: Dependencies that V5 launch depends on — engine version, plugins, middleware, third-party SDKs, infrastructure services, platform SDKs, build tooling, and internal packages on the V5 critical path. Companion docs: V5/V5_features.md, V5/V5_TODOS.md, V5/V5_ARCHITECTURE.md. Date: 2026-05-15

Purpose#

This file is the V5-scoped dependency contract. For each dependency it answers three questions a reviewer needs before launch:

  1. What is it — one sentence on the dependency itself.
  2. Where does V5 use it — the V5 features or TODOS sections that need it.
  3. How is it wired — version source, plugin path, target platform.

Pinned versions will live in V5/ue/V5.uproject, each plugin's *.uplugin, each *.Build.cs, and the per-platform configs in V5/ue/Config/ once §1 creates those artifacts. Until then, this document is the planning contract and must mark dependencies as current, planned, or external.

Package-state rule for agents:

  • Current packages must match a repo package.json before wiring.
  • Planned packages are actionable work: create or land the package before wiring V5 to it, unless an ADR says the feature must be gated.
  • Historical / corrected package names are only mentioned to prevent reuse; do not implement against them.

Cross-Reference Convention#

Throughout the V5 docs, including this file, bare §N and §N.M references resolve to V5_TODOS.md (the canonical backlog). Explicit doc prefixes are used where ambiguity matters:

  • §40V5_TODOS.md §40.
  • deps§14 → this file's §14.
  • arch§"<anchor>"V5_ARCHITECTURE.md by section anchor.
  • features§"<anchor>"V5_features.md by section anchor.

Table of Contents#

  1. Engine Version
  2. First-Party UE Plugins
  3. Third-Party UE Plugins
  4. Audio Middleware
  5. Animation & Mocap Pipeline
  6. Physics, Cloth, Hair, Destruction
  7. Rendering & Post-Process
  8. Networking & Replication
  9. Online Services Provider
  10. Anti-Cheat
  11. Platform SDKs
  12. Build & Distributed Compile
  13. Source Control
  14. Data Authoring & ETL
  15. Telemetry & Analytics
  16. Cloud Backend Services
  17. Anti-Spam, Moderation, ML
  18. Localization & VO
  19. Esports / Broadcast Toolkit
  20. Testing Tooling
  21. Marketing Site Stack
  22. Live Service Operations
  23. Security, Secrets, Code Signing
  24. Internal V5 Modules & Plugins
  25. Procedural Generation (PCG)
  26. Crowd / Mass Entity
  27. Vehicle / ChaosVehicles
  28. Voice / Speech-to-Text / Text-to-Speech
  29. Companion App
  30. Spectator Portal
  31. Newtonian Spaceship Physics Stack
  32. MotionScan Face-Capture Stack
  33. Mind Palace Cloud-Sync
  34. Internal Oshun Cross-Domain Dependencies

1. Engine Version#

Dependency Version Notes
Unreal Engine 5.5 LTS Lock to 5.5.x; no engine upgrade across the launch window without explicit signoff
Engine source path Engine/ (Epic) Built from source if engine modifications required; binary otherwise
Visual Studio 2022 17.10+ Windows toolchain
Xcode 16.x macOS (dev only)
clang (Linux) 16+ For Linux dedicated server
CMake 3.28+ Where required by 3rd-party SDKs
LLVM / lld 16+ Used for fast linking on Linux DS

V5's UE 5.5 LTS choice matches V2, V3, and V4 — Oshun's four game-domain projects all converge on 5.5 LTS to share toolchain and middleware investments. No engine upgrade in the launch window.

2. First-Party UE Plugins#

Enabled in V5.uproject Plugins list. The full inventory is large; the table below covers every plugin V5 ships with enabled. Plugins not listed are explicitly disabled in DefaultEngine.ini to keep editor cold-start ≤ 30 s and runtime memory predictable.

Plugin Used by V5 for
GameplayAbilities (GAS) Combat spine, abilities, attributes, effects (V5Gameplay)
EnhancedInput Input mappings, IMCs, dialogue wheel cursor (V5Input)
CommonUI Front-end shell, input-style routing, focus graph (V5UI)
ModelViewViewModel HUD attribute binding (V5UI)
MotionWarping Takedown / hijack / boarding alignment to NPC / ship
AnimationWarping Foot lock, stride warping for traversal modes
MotionMatching Open-world roaming, traversal, horse-ride, zero-G locomotion
Mover (2.0) Replacement for CMC in exploration modes
ChooserTable Hit-reaction selection, takedown variant selection
Niagara Muzzle, blood, debris, VFX, weather, signs FX
GeometryScripting Procedural map building (PCG-augmented)
ProceduralMeshComponent Editor stage building
ChaosCloth Costume cloth, period-correct clothing, witcher's cape
ChaosFlesh Hunter cell gore for cinematic finishers (mild)
ChaosDestruction Vehicle deformation, building damage, ship hull penetration
ChaosVehicles Drivable vehicles across all eras
MetaSound Native audio runtime
MetaHuman Principals + composed-mesh NPCs
WorldPartition Open-world streaming
DataLayers Era-bundle swap for period cell, faction-state in sci-fi
Sequencer Cinematics, mocap playback, MotionScan tell-take playback
PCG (Procedural Content) Side-quest generation, random encounters, city decoration
MassEntity Pedestrian density, traffic, station crowds
MoveLocators NPC schedule path-finding
Lumen Global illumination
Nanite Virtualized geometry
VirtualShadowMaps Shadow rendering
Iris (NetDriver v2) Open-world replication (V5Netcode)
GameFeatures Per-mode plugin enablement
GameplayCameras Per-cell camera authoring
AudioGameplayVolumes Spatialized music + reverb

3. Third-Party UE Plugins#

Plugin Version Used by V5 for State
Wwise / FMOD (alt) n/a NOT used; we standardize on MetaSounds excluded
Houdini Engine 20.x PCG asset baking from Houdini for environments external
SpeedTree 9.x Foliage authoring for hunter + frontier external
Substance Painter / Designer 2025.x Texturing pipeline external
Easy Anti-Cheat n/a Anti-cheat (deps§10) external
MetaHuman Animator latest Face capture / facial-tell pipeline first-party
Live Link Face latest iPhone face-capture for additional takes first-party
PerforceSourceControl first-party Helix Core integration first-party

4. Audio Middleware#

V5 standardizes on MetaSounds as the runtime audio system. No third- party middleware (no Wwise / FMOD). The choice is documented in V5/docs/decisions/0019-metasounds-only.md (planned ADR).

Middleware Used for
MetaSounds Runtime audio: dynamic music, period radio, vehicle audio, foley
Audiokinetic / Wwise NOT used
FMOD Studio NOT used
Dolby Atmos Spatial mix per platform (PS5 / Xbox)
Sony 360 Reality Audio Spatial mix on PS5
Steam Audio Binaural HRTF on PC / VR
Pro Tools / Nuendo DAW for VO + post-production (external)
iZotope RX VO post-processing (external)

5. Animation & Mocap Pipeline#

Dependency Notes
MotionBuilder Mocap solve + retarget
Maya Cinematic shot authoring + rigging
Blender Quadruped + alien-creature rigging
MetaHuman Animator Face capture for principals
Live Link Face iPhone-based face capture for additional takes
Mocap Studios 4 studios — LA, London, Vancouver, Tokyo
Face Capture Stage 12-camera MetaHuman face stage (LA)
FACS Calibration Tool Custom V5 tool for per-actor 16-hour FACS calibration
Vicon / OptiTrack Optical mocap (per studio choice)
Xsens (inertial) Limited use for travel scenes
iPi Soft Markerless mocap for noise-recording sessions

6. Physics, Cloth, Hair, Destruction#

Dependency Used for
Chaos (UE 5.5) Rigid body, vehicles, destruction (all cells)
ChaosCloth Period-correct clothing, witcher cape, ship-suit gloves
ChaosHair Principal-grade hair, beard, fur (animals + monsters)
ChaosDestruction Vehicle deformation, building damage, ship hull penetration
ChaosVehicles Drivable vehicles across eras
PhysX 5 (legacy) Compatibility for older asset pipelines
Newtonian Custom Solver V5Spaceship-specific solver for hard-sci-fi ship physics

7. Rendering & Post-Process#

Dependency Used for
Lumen Global illumination
Nanite Virtualized geometry — every era's terrain and architecture
Virtual Shadow Maps Shadow rendering
DLSS / FSR / XeSS / MetalFX Upscalers per platform
TSR (Temporal Super Resolution) UE5 native upscaler
PostProcess Volume Per-cell color grading; period film-stock LUTs
MovieRenderQueue Pre-rendered cinematics (4K master)

8. Networking & Replication#

Dependency Used for
Iris NetDriver V2 Open-world replication
Steam Datagram Relay (SDR) Steam-version dedicated relays
PlayStation Network Multiplayer PSN matchmaking on PS5 / PS5 Pro
Xbox Live Matchmaking on XSX / XSS
Nintendo Switch Online Switch 2 multiplayer (limited cell scope)
AWS GameLift Cross-platform game-server hosting
Azure PlayFab Multiplayer matchmaking augment for cross-platform
Rollback Custom Stack V5Netcode-specific 8-frame rollback for twitch PvP

9. Online Services Provider#

V5 uses a hybrid first-party + GameLift backend.

Service Provider
Auth (OAuth + JWT) Self-hosted (NestJS) + per-platform identity (PSN / Xbox / Steam / NSO)
Friends graph Self-hosted; per-platform import
Parties Self-hosted
Matchmaking GameLift + self-hosted MMR per cell
Leaderboards Self-hosted; ClickHouse-backed
Replays S3 (region-specific) + signed URL distribution
Anti-Cheat EAC (Easy Anti-Cheat by Epic)
Telemetry ingestion Kafka → ClickHouse → Grafana
Crash reporting Sentry-equivalent self-hosted (PII-scrubbing)
Mind Palace cloud-sync Self-hosted gRPC service
Workshop Self-hosted file-store + curation pipeline
DSAR / Compliance Self-hosted; integrates with profile DB
Live-Service Calendar Self-hosted; pushes to client via CDN
Balance Ledger Self-hosted; append-only event log
Faction-rep Self-hosted; per-account-id ledger

10. Anti-Cheat#

Dependency Used for
Easy Anti-Cheat (EAC) Kernel-level on Windows; userland on Mac / Linux / consoles
Custom signal layer Server-side aim plausibility, aimbot detection, wall-hack, speed-hack
ML classifier TensorFlow Lite-based; runs on telemetry stream
Appeal flow Companion-app-driven; 3-strike system

11. Platform SDKs#

Platform SDK Version Notes
Windows n/a Win32 + DirectX 12; Steam (Steamworks SDK 1.59+)
macOS Xcode 16 Apple Silicon (M3+) primary; Intel deprecated
Linux clang 16+ Steam Deck primary target via Proton
PlayStation 5 latest LIBPS Trophies, DualSense haptics, 360 audio
PlayStation 5 Pro latest LIBPS Same as PS5 + Pro mode
Xbox Series X GDK latest Smart Delivery, Achievements, Quick Resume
Xbox Series S GDK latest Memory-budget profile
Switch 2 NDK latest Joy-Con motion, console-mode + handheld
iPad Pro M3+ iPad SDK Touch + ProMotion 120Hz
Cloud (PixelStreaming) n/a Browser + TV variant where contract permits

12. Build & Distributed Compile#

Dependency Used for
UnrealBuildTool (UBT) C++ build
UnrealAutomationTool Cooking + packaging
Horde Build (Epic) Distributed compile + cook farm
Incredibuild Optional distributed compile alternative
AWS CodeBuild CI orchestration
Buildkite Build pipeline tooling
MSVC / Clang / Linker Toolchains per platform
UnrealPak Iterative Chunked patching

13. Source Control#

Dependency Used for
Git (this repo) Code, configs, design docs, balance data
Helix Core (Perforce) Binary assets (V5/ue/Content/)
Helix Swarm Asset review
Git LFS Limited use for small binary configs (NOT for asset bulk)

14. Data Authoring & ETL#

Tool Used for
DataTable Editor UDataTable authoring
Yaml / TOML Mission, dialogue, recipe authoring
Python Authoring tools (tools/)
TypeScript Online services backend
Excel / Google Sheets Balance spreadsheets (export via CSV)
dbt Telemetry transformations
Pandas Balance validation
ClickHouse Telemetry warehouse
Kafka Telemetry ingestion stream

15. Telemetry & Analytics#

Dependency Used for
Self-hosted ingestion TypeScript edge service → Kafka → ClickHouse
Grafana Dashboards
Prometheus Infrastructure metrics
OpenTelemetry Tracing
TypeBox Schema validation
Sentry-equivalent Crash reporting (PII-scrubbed; self-hosted)

16. Cloud Backend Services#

Service Provider
Compute AWS (multi-region: us-east, us-west, eu-west, ap-northeast, ap-southeast)
Game servers AWS GameLift
Storage S3 (replays, profile blobs)
Object delivery CloudFront (CDN)
Relational DB RDS Postgres
Cache ElastiCache Redis
Telemetry warehouse ClickHouse on EKS
Kubernetes EKS
Message queue Kafka (MSK)
Observability Grafana / Loki / Tempo
Secrets AWS KMS + Secrets Manager
CN data residency Alibaba Cloud region for CN users

17. Anti-Spam, Moderation, ML#

Dependency Used for
OpenAI-compatible API ML pre-screen for workshop content (planned)
TensorFlow Lite On-device ML for anti-cheat classifier
Perspective API (Google) In-chat toxicity scoring (optional)
Custom NSFW classifier Workshop content pre-screen
Human review queue Self-hosted; tier-1 / tier-2 escalation

18. Localization & VO#

Dependency Used for
UE Localization Dashboard Translation workflow
MemoQ / Trados Translator-facing CAT tooling
VO casting agencies 4 outsourced (LATAM, BR, KR, CN); LA / London / Tokyo in-house
Lipsync tool OVR LipSync + JALI (planned for languages without principal-grade sync)
iZotope RX VO post-processing
Pro Tools DAW

19. Esports / Broadcast Toolkit#

Dependency Used for
OBS Studio (custom build) Streamer integration
vMix Broadcast control room
NDI Network video streaming
SRT Low-latency streaming
Twitch / YouTube SDKs Live integration
OBS Plugin (V5 broadcast tools) Custom plugin for scoreboard overlay

20. Testing Tooling#

Dependency Used for
UE Automation Framework Unit + automation tests
Gauntlet Long-running integration tests
Python (pytest) Service contract tests
Playwright Marketing site E2E
Bugzilla / Jira Bug tracking
TestRail Test case management
Lokalise Localization QA

21. Marketing Site Stack#

Dependency Used for
Next.js (15+) Marketing site framework
React (19+) UI library
TypeScript Type-safe code
Tailwind CSS Styling
shadcn/ui Component primitives
Framer Motion Animations
Sanity / Contentful CMS for editorial content
Algolia Wiki search

22. Live Service Operations#

Dependency Used for
Statsig / LaunchDarkly Feature flagging + balance hot-fix
Looker / Tableau Live-service dashboards
Customer.io Push notifications (companion app)
Zendesk / Intercom Customer support
Discord SDK Optional Discord integration

23. Security, Secrets, Code Signing#

Dependency Used for
AWS KMS Secret management
HashiCorp Vault Optional secret-rotation
Per-platform PKI Code signing per platform
TLS 1.3 All client-server traffic
Oodle Kraken Save / patch compression (high ratio)

24. Internal V5 Modules & Plugins#

The full internal module list lives in arch§"Module Split" and the GameFeatures plugin catalog in features§"Game-Feature Plugins (modular, hot-swap)". A summary of the 47 internal modules and 28 plugin manifests is provided below.

Engine modules (47):

V5Core, V5Gameplay, V5Open, V5Vehicles, V5Combat, V5Melee, V5Investigation, V5Interrogation, V5MindPalace, V5Dialogue, V5Squad, V5StarMap, V5Spaceship, V5Alchemy, V5Signs, V5MonsterHunt, V5DeadEye, V5Honor, V5Hunting, V5Crowd, V5Wanted, V5Heist, V5PeriodAuth, V5FaceCapture, V5Karaoke, V5CardGame, V5RadioTV, V5HorseAI, V5Parkour, V5LockpickHack, V5Schedules, V5Animation, V5Input, V5Netcode, V5Modes, V5UI, V5Audio, V5VFX, V5Cinematics, V5Persistence, V5OnlineServices, V5Telemetry, V5Editor, V5Procgen, V5Hub, V5Perception, V5Tests.

GameFeatures plugins (28):

V5Mode_Urban_HeistCity, V5Mode_Urban_StreetTriad, V5Mode_Urban_Online, V5Mode_Period_MadeMan, V5Mode_Period_ViceSquad, V5Mode_Period_InterrogationKit, V5Mode_Frontier_OutlawTrail, V5Mode_Frontier_Online, V5Mode_Hunter_WitchersPath, V5Mode_Hunter_ContractBoard, V5Mode_Hunter_CardGame, V5Mode_SciFi_GalacticSquad, V5Mode_SciFi_HardVacuum, V5Mode_SciFi_FleetCoop, V5Mode_Detective_MindPalace, V5Mode_Detective_ColdCases, V5Mode_SpecOps_Coop, V5Mode_HordeDefense_PerCell, V5Mode_Roguelike_HunterRun, V5Mode_Editor_Mission, V5Mode_Editor_HeistAuthor, V5Mode_Editor_CaseAuthor, V5Mode_Editor_Workshop, V5Mode_Replay, V5Mode_Spectator, V5Mode_Training_Range, V5Mode_Lobby_BureauHQ, V5Mode_PhotoMode.

25. Procedural Generation (PCG)#

Dependency Used for
UE PCG Plugin Open-world decoration, side-quest layouts, encounter placement
Houdini Engine Pre-baked PCG content
Custom V5 PCG Tools Per-cell pattern libraries (talk-to-NPC, escort, hunt, scavenge, race)

26. Crowd / Mass Entity#

Dependency Used for
MassEntity Pedestrian / NPC density
MoveLocators NPC schedule pathfinding
CrowdAI Behavior Per-cell flee / panic / report behaviors
Houdini Crowd Brain Pre-baked crowd patterns

27. Vehicle / ChaosVehicles#

Dependency Used for
ChaosVehicles All ground vehicles
Custom Chaos Tunings Per-vehicle handling files (~280)
Helicopter Plugin Modern + period helicopter handling
Boat Plugin Boats, ski, yacht
Aircraft Plugin Light + twin planes, sci-fi VTOL
Quadruped Locomotion Horse (V5HorseAI, not Chaos)
Train Plugin Frontier train (heist-able)

28. Voice / Speech-to-Text / Text-to-Speech#

Dependency Used for
OVR LipSync Real-time lipsync
JALI Procedural lipsync for non-primary languages
Whisper (self-hosted) Voice-chat STT for player accessibility
Coqui TTS TTS for menus (accessibility)
In-game voice (peer-to-peer) Self-hosted SFU service
Voice translation Year-1 expansion only (P2)

29. Companion App#

Dependency Used for
Swift / SwiftUI iOS app
Kotlin / Jetpack Compose Android app
Next.js Web companion (mirror)
Firebase Cloud Messaging Push notifications
OAuth provider Same backend as game

30. Spectator Portal#

Dependency Used for
Next.js Spectator portal
WebRTC Real-time stream
HLS / DASH Replay streaming

31. Newtonian Spaceship Physics Stack#

Dependency Used for
Custom Newtonian Solver V5Spaceship-specific solver layered on top of PhysX
PhysX 5 Underlying constraint solver
Custom Gravity Volume System Per-zone gravity field (thrust-G / spin-G / zero-G)
Loose-Object Sim Conservation-of-momentum prop sim (coffee-cup-on-table)

32. MotionScan Face-Capture Stack#

Dependency Used for
MetaHuman Creator Principal-character face creation
MetaHuman Animator Face-capture solve
Custom Face Stage 12-camera stage (LA studio)
FACS Calibration Tool Per-actor 16-hour calibration
USD blendshape stack Capture output format
Sequencer integration Tell-take authoring + playback
Live Link Face (iPhone) Supplementary capture device

33. Mind Palace Cloud-Sync#

Dependency Used for
Self-hosted gRPC service Cross-device graph state sync
JSON Patch (RFC 6902) Graph diff format
Postgres (graph schema) Backing store
CDN delivery Read-side cache for companion app

34. Internal Oshun Cross-Domain Dependencies#

V5 integrates with the broader Oshun monorepo where it can share investments without compromising on the per-genre feel promise.

Oshun Domain What V5 Uses
shared / auth Single sign-on with the rest of the Oshun ecosystem
shared / telemetry Common telemetry event schema base
shared / observability Common Grafana / Loki / Tempo deployment patterns
isis Cosmetic pipeline (face / outfit / vehicle skins) — likeness clearance
themis Originality shields (workshop content moderation reuse)
kuanyin First-line moderation pipeline reuse
aphrodite Age-gate flow + consent surfaces
maat Balance dashboard + finance ledger surfaces
iris Accessibility surfaces + real-time translation (year-1)
lakshmi Responsible-play + spend-insight surfaces
metis Governed educational content for Training Range verification bays
psyche AI-director hints for adaptive difficulty
calliope Commentator-persona library reuse
euterpe Commentary ducking + dynamic mix
sophia Release-candidate ingestion automation
nous Anti-cheat classifier shared with V2's ecosystem
aje Workshop economy + cosmetic ownership (year-1 expansion)
concordia Substrate compliance / age-gate shared library
per-account-vault Lifetime replay archive + ghost-data archive

V5 specifically does NOT take a dependency on:

  • Any V1 / V2 / V3 / V4 gameplay module (V5 is its own product with no inter-product gameplay code).
  • Any specific Oshun gameplay system not listed above (the cross-domain dependencies are infrastructure-level, not gameplay-level).

Version pinning, integration tests, and contract validation for each cross-domain dependency live in the consuming service repo within V5/.

Metis boundary audit (2026-07-27): @v5/metis-training-bridge admits exact released Metis lesson bundles for the six canonical verification bays through @metis/game-bridge-contract. Metis owns the educational content and its rights, provenance, grounding, disclosure, accessibility, and fallback evidence. V5 retains exclusive authority over combat, vehicles, signs, AI, timing data, live metrics, training execution, and completion. The bridge is a deterministic authoring/cook export; a cooked Unreal consumer remains open.