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Francois-Xavier Inglese
Verified Expert in Engineering
3D Software Developer
Wavre, Belgium
Toptal member since August 24, 2023
Bio
FX is a senior 3D software developer with a Ph.D. in computer science and 15+ years of experience building interactive applications, including car simulations, video games, and VR experiences. He specializes in Unreal Engine 4 and 5 using Blueprint and C++. FX has mastered Unreal Engine's assets, including replication, UI, behavior trees, profiling, materials, animation blueprints, Control Rig, the Niagara visual effects system, and the Gameplay Ability System (GAS).
Portfolio
Impact Reality
Unreal Engine 4, C++, Virtual Reality (VR), Android, Optimization...
Haute Ecole Albert Jacquard
Unreal Engine 5, C++, Blueprints Visual Scripting, University Teaching...
Fishing Cactus
Unreal Engine 5, 3D Games, C++, Blueprint
Experience
- Windows - 20 years
- C++ - 10 years
- Gameplay Development - 10 years
- Virtual Reality (VR) - 10 years
- Unreal Engine - 7 years
- Blueprint - 6 years
- Augmented Reality (AR) - 3 years
- Multiplayer - 2 years
Work Experience
Senior Developer
2026 - PRESENT
Impact Reality
- Developed a C++ plugin to handle all usual VR interactions. This allowed us to quickly port interactions from the original game to VR across the whole project and is designed to be easily customized via behavior scripts in Blueprints or C++.
- Optimized CPU and GPU usage and reduced CPU and GPU time to achieve the target Frame Per Second for the Vertical Slice milestone, which was mandatory to unlock further funding from the Client.
- Implemented new VR features and communicated with designers to ensure they'll provide a nice and fun user experience in-game.
Technologies: Unreal Engine 4, C++, Virtual Reality (VR), Android, Optimization, Blueprints Visual Scripting
Teacher
2025 - PRESENT
Haute Ecole Albert Jacquard
- Created and gave a 16h course (Master-1) on Unreal Engine NPC AI and generic AI: Behavior Trees, Finite State Machines, State Trees, Learning Agents, Utility AI, AI Director, Goal-oriented Action Planning, Hierarchical Task Network, and Pathfinding.
- Designed and gave a 24h course (Master-2) on Optimization for Unreal Engine: Rendering Pipeline, Profiling, Scalability Settings, Game Thread, GPU Thread, Memory, Input Latency, Physics, Significance Manager, Draw Calls, Nanite, and Lumen.
- Created and gave a 20h course (Bachelor-3) on Unreal Engine's Gameplay Ability System: Intro to GAS, Gameplay Tags, Ability System Component, Gameplay Abilities, Gameplay Effects, Gameplay Attributes, Gameplay Cues, Debugging with GAS, Pros of GAS.
Technologies: Unreal Engine 5, C++, Blueprints Visual Scripting, University Teaching, Gameplay Development, Optimization, Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Senior Gameplay Developer
2024 - 2025
Fishing Cactus
- Developed three full minigames and reworked multiple activities for a party game targeting children, launching on Nintendo Switch later this year.
- Developed an arcade-style vehicle driving system to mimic Mario Kart gameplay feeling that was used in all three minigames, with some variations.
- Used Slack as a communication tool, Notion as a reporting tool, and Jenkins as a bug tracker tool.
Technologies: Unreal Engine 5, 3D Games, C++, Blueprint
Unreal Engine VR Developer
2024 - 2024
Starks Media
- Optimized a VR application using animated MetaHuman characters to make it run natively on Meta Quest 3, retaining high graphics quality and performance.
- Optimized scene (meshes, materials, and textures) by reducing triangle counts (meshes), using appropriate LODs (MetaHuman characters), appropriately resizing textures, and replacing unnecessary consuming opacity shaders (materials).
- Investigated Pixel Streaming, CloudXR, and CloudXR.js solution to stream PCVR quality to the Quest 3.
- Optimized RAM usage with Soft Pointers, reducing RAM usage at startup from 18 GB to 3.5 GB (Meta Quest 3 has 8 GB RAM).
- Made an Android build and uploaded it to the Meta Store as a Private app to allow easy update of the application.
Technologies: Unreal Engine, Oculus, Virtual Reality (VR), Game Development, Optimization
Unreal Engine Expert
2023 - 2024
Eversio Studios
- Developed a multiplayer (local and steam) game prototype from scratch that the client will be able to conduct play tests and can build upon to make a full game, running on PC and the Steam Deck platform.
- Developed game AI, including Player Minions tasks decision and completion.
- Developed UI, mixing Common UI and Enhanced Input, to create the Main Menu, Player's HUD, Skill Tree and Player Actions menu.
- Developed and Replicated Gameplay features such as Planet Generation with custom gravity, Weather Events, Resources Gathering, Resources Pool, and Building Items.
Technologies: C++, Unreal Engine, Game Development, Multiplayer, Steam, Unreal Engine 5, Blueprints Visual Scripting, 3D Games, Game Design
Unreal Senior Developer
2023 - 2023
Deep Worlds SA
- Developed and integrated into game code a replicated, optimized breakable windows system.
- Integrated and developed a game code for a replicated item-throwing system.
- Profiled and optimized a Chaos-based breakable windows system with Unreal Insights.
Technologies: Unreal Engine 5, C++, Multiplayer, Unreal Engine, Blueprints Visual Scripting, 3D Games
Unreal Engine Developer
2022 - 2023
Freelance Clients
- Developed a training simulation with a scenario that adapts according to a database stored in the cloud.
- Created multiplayer support for a single-player game, with Epic Online Services support and various gameplay and UI features.
- Added features to the Datasmith plugin for 3D modeling software.
Technologies: Unreal Engine 5, Blueprint, C++, Virtual Reality (VR), Gameplay Development, Multiplayer, JetBrains Rider, HTC Vive, Windows, Jira, Unreal Engine, Video Games, Game Development, Blueprints Visual Scripting, 3D Games, Game Design
XR Developer
2020 - 2023
N-Gone
- Developed a mobile language-learning application in Unity.
- Built room-scale multiplayer VR applications and a demonstration project for STR4P technology in Unreal Engine.
- Added features for the Sky-AR application in Unity.
Technologies: Unreal Engine 4, Unreal Engine 5, Blueprint, C++, Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), Unity, C#, HTC Vive, Gameplay Development, Windows, Android, Multiplayer, Unreal Engine, Video Games, Unity3D, Game Development, Blueprints Visual Scripting, 3D Games, Game Design
Unreal Engine Developer
2022 - 2022
Freelance Clients
- Built an iOS health app. Integrated Swift and Objective-C 3rd-party SDKs and developed the app's communication with the back-end API, environment, and UI.
- Developed a game prototype, including the environment, UI, and quest with a non-player character dialogue system.
- Added a speech-to-text recognition feature to the existing project.
Technologies: Unreal Engine 5, Unreal Engine 4, Swift, Objective-C, Blueprint, Gameplay Development, Unreal Engine, C++, Windows, iOS, MacOS, Xcode, Video Games, Game Development, Blueprints Visual Scripting, 3D Games, Game Design
XR Expert
2018 - 2021
UCLouvain
- Built a simulator for generating photorealistic images of road traffic in Unreal Engine 4.
- Developed AR/VR applications and a VR room management app.
- Created modules to produce tutorials and quizzes for a mobile language-learning application in Unity.
Technologies: Unreal Engine 4, C++, Blueprint, Unity, C#, Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, Multiplayer, Unreal Engine, Android, Gameplay Development, Perforce, Video Games, Windows, Unity3D, Game Development, Blueprints Visual Scripting, 3D Games, Game Design
Senior Developer
2012 - 2017
Guru Training Systems (aka "Swinguru")
- Developed new features for Swinguru Pro 2 and added a third-party device for golf clubs (Swingbyte) using Bluetooth communication and external API for data retrieving and display.
- Designed and developed anti-copy protection for MySwinguru that was then applied to all Guru Training Systems products.
- Refactored the MySwinguru application, then designed and added features, such as a video export system of captured and analyzed golf swings.
- Designed and developed both Swinguru Pro Golf 3 and Swinguru Pro Baseball 1, switching from Creative Engine (Softkinetic Studios proprietary C++ game engine) to Unity.
- Designed and developed MySwinguru 2, switching from Adobe AIR to Unity.
- Architected and developed launcher, updater, and language selector applications for Swinguru Pro Golf and Baseball.
Technologies: C++, C#, Unity, Adobe AIR, Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), Crypto++, OpenCV, ActionScript 3, NSIS, Visual Studio, Windows, Unity3D, Game Development
3D Software Engineer
2011 - 2012
Softkinetic Studios
- Developed SKMC, Softkinetic, now known as Sony Depthsensing Solutions, Media Center. Demonstrated it at Las Vegas CES 2012.
- Developed the user interface of Broadcast CI and demonstrated it at Las Vegas CES 2012.
- Developed, and actively participated to design, Meerkat project.
- Completed some research work on interfaces that could be used along 3D cameras, specifically Nintendo Wiimote + HMD.
- Added features to Creative Engine (Softkinetic Studios proprietary C++ game engine).
- Developed the user interface of DanceWall, a game released only on Chinese set-top-boxes, that got a remix for PC (DanceWell Remix).
Technologies: C++, Visual Studio, Subversion (SVN), Scrum, Jira, Gameplay Development, Video Games, Windows, Game Development, 3D Games, Game Design
3D Development Engineer
2009 - 2010
ECA Faros
- Added features to the proprietary game engine, such as particles system, road-smoothing using Bezier splines, PhysX files import, and integrated new security Dongle.
- Developed MAX Scripts and Plugins to ease and accelerate artist work.
- Worked on game engine porting from proprietary engine to OpenSceneGraph.
- Proposed alternatives to OpenSceneGraph (CryEngine3, Unreal Engine 3, Trinigy Vision Engine), which led to the evaluation of those alternatives (mockup development) and, finally, the adoption of Trinigy Vision Engine.
- Worked on game engine porting to Trinigy Vision Engine and created particle system with Trinigy vForge.
Technologies: C++, C#, OpenGL, OpenSceneGraph, PhysX, Visual Studio, CVS, MaxScript, Autodesk 3ds Max, Windows, Game Development, 3D Games
Research Engineer
2007 - 2009
General Concil of Maine-Et-Loire
- Designed and developed a fun educational augmented reality application for Terra Botanica, an amusement and botanical park, as a school group attraction.
- Wrote application Statement of Work, scenario, architecture, and game specifications documents.
- Searched for software solutions, developed interaction techniques, and created 2D art assets, specifically icons, user interface, and particle textures.
Technologies: C++, OpenGL, Lua, Win32, ARToolKit, GLSL, Visual Studio, Photoshop CS3, Gameplay Development, Video Games, Windows, Game Development, 3D Games, Game Design
Project History
High on Life VR
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQziBgQgrJIPorting "High on Life", a PC and console video game, to VR platforms, including Meta Quest 3.
"High on Life" is a comedic first-person shooter where an alien cartel invades Earth to use humans as a drug. Players team up with foul-mouthed, sentient alien guns to become intergalactic bounty hunters, explore diverse alien worlds, and save humanity.
My work involves gameplay development, CPU and GPU optimizations, and VR interaction plugin creation in both C++ and Blueprints within Unreal Engine.
"High on Life" is a comedic first-person shooter where an alien cartel invades Earth to use humans as a drug. Players team up with foul-mouthed, sentient alien guns to become intergalactic bounty hunters, explore diverse alien worlds, and save humanity.
My work involves gameplay development, CPU and GPU optimizations, and VR interaction plugin creation in both C++ and Blueprints within Unreal Engine.
Sports Camp
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbFXy7TnId0A Nintendo Switch multiplayer party game for children packed with over 35 unique and unexpected activities. It features Joy-Con motion detection and easy-to-learn gameplay.
I created three of the mini-games (Kart Snake, Kart Race, and Summer Sled) and developed, reworked, and improved six of the open-world activities (Dog Agility, Throw the Ball, Horse Jumping, Baseball, Badminton, Bark).
I created three of the mini-games (Kart Snake, Kart Race, and Summer Sled) and developed, reworked, and improved six of the open-world activities (Dog Agility, Throw the Ball, Horse Jumping, Baseball, Badminton, Bark).
Vizvoda – The Factory
A multiplayer room-scale VR experience to demonstrate what can be done in VR (exploration, interaction, collaboration).
I was the project's leading developer and was in charge of integrating user avatars, interactions, teleportation systems, and optimization.
I was the project's leading developer and was in charge of integrating user avatars, interactions, teleportation systems, and optimization.
Quest Challenge Application
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABiT5iSN8EYAn application developed with Unreal Engine 4 and I completed the app in one month in my free time. The application is a quest that, when completed, revealed my personal request for the "players" to be the godparents of my then-unborn twin children.
This 6-step challenge starts with a jigsaw puzzle representing the Sheikah alphabet from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. A QR code on the back of the puzzle leads to the 2nd trial—a web page containing a quiz where questions are written with the Sheikah alphabet. When all the correct answers are given, an instruction page is displayed to the user so they can download and play the app until the final and surprising trial: the godparent request.
This 6-step challenge starts with a jigsaw puzzle representing the Sheikah alphabet from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. A QR code on the back of the puzzle leads to the 2nd trial—a web page containing a quiz where questions are written with the Sheikah alphabet. When all the correct answers are given, an instruction page is displayed to the user so they can download and play the app until the final and surprising trial: the godparent request.
Education
2003 - 2006
PhD in Computer Science
University of Angers - Angers, France
2001 - 2002
Master's Degree in Computer Science
Université du Maine (now Le Mans University) - Le Mans, France
Skills
Libraries/APIs
OpenGL, Crypto++, OpenCV
Tools
Subversion (SVN), JetBrains Rider, Jira, Adobe AIR, NSIS, Visual Studio, OpenSceneGraph, CVS, Autodesk 3ds Max, ARToolKit, Photoshop CS3, Xcode, Perforce
Frameworks
Unreal Engine, Blueprint, Unity, Unreal Engine 4, Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), PhysX, Unity3D
Languages
C++, C#, Swift, Objective-C, ActionScript 3, MaxScript, Lua, GLSL
Platforms
Windows, Win32, Oculus Rift, Android, iOS, MacOS, Steam, Oculus
Paradigms
Scrum
Other
Virtual Reality (VR), Gameplay Development, Game Development, Blueprints Visual Scripting, 3D Games, Multiplayer, HTC Vive, Game Design, Augmented Reality (AR), Unreal Engine 5, Video Games, Optimization, University Teaching, Artificial Intelligence (AI)
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