Framework combines native performance with human-factor evaluation to connect measurable specifications with real gaming experiences.
SHANGHAI, Oct. 15, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Following the official launch of the TÜV Rheinland Native Gaming Performance Standard at the 23rd China Digital Entertainment Expo & Conference (ChinaJoy) in July 2026, the certification framework is now being adopted across the gaming display industry. Recently, multiple gaming monitors from Lenovo's Legion series and ANTGAMER earned TÜV Rheinland Native Gaming Performance Certification, making them among the first products certified under the new standard. ANTGAMER is an esports brand under HKC which was established in Shenzhen in 2001.
Higher refresh rates and shorter advertised response times do not necessarily translate into clearer, more stable gaming visuals. When such specifications depend on overclocking, undisclosed reductions in display quality or compromises in stability, the actual experience may fall short of product claims. TÜV Rheinland's framework addresses this challenge by evaluating both the accuracy of performance claims and the quality of the gaming experience.
The Native Gaming Performance evaluation system was developed to provide consumers with a transparent and measurable benchmark for assessing gaming displays. The standard clearly defines three refresh-rate operating modes, namely native, overclocked, and dual-mode, while establishing a "same mode, full-system testing" principle. Refresh-rate overclocking is excluded from certification, ensuring performance claims are assessed under consistent and realistic operating conditions.
Designed around the core requirements of gamers, the certification framework evaluates products across three key dimensions: motion performance, image quality, and visual comfort. Fourteen indicators are assessed under these dimensions. Different weighting factors are applied according to competitive, immersive, and all-around gaming scenarios; the weighted results are then summed to produce the final Gaming Performance Index (GPI), which is converted into a three- to five-star rating. The methodology also incorporates human-factor studies, including dynamic visual acuity assessments, eye-tracking analysis, and first-person shooter gaming tests. These convert subjective gaming experiences into quantifiable data and deliver a more comprehensive measurement of perceived motion clarity.
Advancing the Gaming Display Industry Toward Real-World Performance
Jay Yang, Global Senior Vice President of Electrical at TÜV Rheinland, stated: "The Native Gaming Performance Standard was introduced to help consumers identify products that genuinely deliver high-level gaming experiences. The successful certification of multiple Lenovo Legion and ANTGAMER monitors demonstrates both manufacturers' continued commitment to display innovation and the practical applicability of the standard across the industry."
He added that the certification framework combines a unified definition of native performance, full-system testing methodologies, human-factor validation, and scenario-based star ratings. This encourages the gaming display industry to move beyond specification-driven competition toward performance evaluated through real-world testing. The program also supports consumers in making informed purchasing decisions while ensuring certification integrity through ongoing standards updates and production-sample surveillance.
Sixteen Lenovo Legion Monitors Receive 3-Star to 5-Star Ratings
As Lenovo's flagship gaming monitor lineup, the Legion series is designed to deliver high refresh rates, low latency, and premium image quality. In this certification project, 16 Legion monitors received TÜV Rheinland Native Gaming Performance ratings ranging from three to five stars, reflecting Lenovo's comprehensive product portfolio from entry-level to flagship offerings.
5-Star Certified Models (4): Legion 27Q-10 OLED, Legion Pro 27Q-10, Legion Pro 27UD-10, Legion Pro 32UD-10
4-Star Certified Models (7): Legion 34W-2c, Legion 32Q-2C, Legion 27U-10, Legion 27U-20, Legion 27QD-10, Legion 27Q-20, Legion 27Q-2c
3-Star Certified Models (5): Legion 27Q-10, Legion 27-2c, Legion 27-1r, Legion 25-10, Legion 24-1r
George Toh, Vice President and General Manager, Visuals Business, Lenovo's Intelligent Devices Group, said: "The TÜV Rheinland Native Gaming Performance Certification awarded to 16 Legion monitors is strong recognition of our continued investment in gaming display technologies and our commitment to prioritizing real-world user experiences. Certification across the full range of ratings, from three to five stars, demonstrates the ability of our product portfolio to meet the diverse needs of gamers at every level. We look forward to further strengthening our collaboration with TÜV Rheinland to deliver clearer, smoother, and more comfortable visual experiences for gamers worldwide."
Four ANTGAMER Monitors Earn 5-Star Certification
Following comprehensive testing and evaluation by TÜV Rheinland, four gaming monitors from HKC's ANTGAMER brand, namely ANT25ASF, ANT255TQ, ANT275TQ, and ANT272TUE, met the requirements of the Native Gaming Performance Standard and received the highest 5-Star Certification.
Covering FHD, QHD, and UHD resolutions, the certified models are designed to address the performance requirements of professional esports players, dedicated gaming enthusiasts, and premium entertainment users seeking high-performance gaming displays.
Peng Xinchun, General Manager of Brand Operations at ANTGAMER, commented: "Receiving TÜV Rheinland's 5-Star Native Gaming Performance Certification validates our ability to deliver clear, smooth, and precise visual experiences in real gaming scenarios. Going forward, HKC will continue working closely with TÜV Rheinland to provide consumers with superior display technologies and enhanced visual experiences."
About TÜV Rheinland
TÜV Rheinland is a leading provider of testing, inspection and certification services worldwide. For over 150 years, the company has helped make the world a safer place. Today, more than 29,000 employees test, inspect and certify products, plants and processes, while also providing training for people in a wide range of professions. Operating from 500 locations in more than 50 countries, TÜV Rheinland helps safeguard key areas of business and everyday life. Headquartered in Cologne and generating annual revenue of close to €3 billion, the company plays a key role in quality assurance worldwide. TÜV Rheinland has been a member of the UN Global Compact since 2006, demonstrating its commitment to anti-corruption and sustainability.
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20 Lenovo and HKC Monitors Among First to Receive TÜV Rheinland Native Gaming Performance Certification
20 Lenovo and HKC Monitors Among First to Receive TÜV Rheinland Native Gaming Performance Certification
SAN JOSE, Calif., Oct. 15, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Reallusion's 2026 3D Character Contest was held from June 1st to October 1st, 2026. Within 3 months, 200 submissions were submitted from 49 countries. The contest showcases the best 3D character design and animation created using Reallusion's powerful character production ecosystems: Character Creator for 3D character creation, iClone for facial and body animation, and AccuRIG for rigging.
"We at Reallusion are thrilled to watch so many world-class character artists integrate Character Creator and iClone into their professional workflows. This contest clearly demonstrated that Character Creator gives artists complete creative freedom to build original 3D characters in any style or genre. Huge congratulations to every participant. We are excited to keep pushing the boundaries of 3D innovation for the community!"
– Enoc Burgos, Reallusion Director of Partnership Marketing
Prizes Sponsored by Renowned Industry Leaders
The Contest was hosted by Reallusion and sponsored by industry leaders such as NVIDIA, Maxon, Epic Games, Unity, SideFX, Marvelous Designer, MSI, WD, and CenterGrid. Through this contest, Character Creator's extensive pipeline lets artists seamlessly integrate a new workflow for rapid creativity with zero sacrifice in character quality.
Meet Our Winners And Their Testimonials
The contest challenged artists to create stunning, original 3D characters that not only showcased their artistic abilities, but also demonstrated mastery of animation tools like Character Creator and iClone. After weeks of careful evaluation by our esteemed panel of judges, the following winners stood out for their exceptional work.
Watch winner video: https://youtu.be/zhGfrHHtT7Y
Realistic Character Design
Under this category, entrants create a realistic human character in Character Creator by combining the character base with tools like ZBrush, Substance Painter, Marvelous Designer, Blender, Wrap, Texturing.xyz, and Maya. Watch their winning entry and testimonials below.
1st Place: Jax: Soul of the Street – by Jimmy Watelle, Manager | Costa Rica
"Character Creator and the Blender Data Link helped me a lot in building the base of the Jax character, but I also faced numerous challenges related to my skill level and navigating between software, sometimes losing data or synchronization along the way. This project brought me as much enjoyment, and it helped me grow tremendously." – Jimmy Watelle
View Jimmy's entry and WIP
2nd Place: Shannaz – by Leudemar "Leo" Lima, Concept Artist | Brazil
"Character Creator helped me bring my design to 3D with a lot of fidelity and realism; easy to use and intuitive, CC5 is a really powerful tool for concept artists." – Leudemar "Leo" Lima
View Leo's entry and WIP
3rd Place: An Unearthly Find – by Jeet Shah, Technical Artist | India
"The speed of CC5 in making changes to primary forms for any character is impeccable and probably the best among any 3D software I've ever used. Need a skinny short girl- tweak a few sliders you get a skinny short girl. Need a fat stubby creature- tweak some more sliders and take it to ZBrush and you have a humanoid creature in under an hour all the while maintaining the subdivided geometry details in CC5 thanks to GoZ Plus. And all of them with a full-body skeleton that's ready to add some controls for posing. The new HD morphs in CC5 are certainly an upgrade to the previous version, where the lack of base mesh resolution made the morphs a bit less detailed; the new ones still come out quite detailed. One other feature I've heavily used is the new addition to Auto Setup for Maya. That allowed for a seamless experience in making the facial expressions on the characters directly in Maya, where I rendered them."– Jeet Shah
View Jeet's entry and WIP
Stylized Character Design
Under this category, entrants create a stylized character in Character Creator by combining the character base with tools like ZBrush, Substance Painter, Marvelous Designer, Blender, Wrap, Texturing.xyz, and Maya. Watch their winning entry and testimonials below.
1st Place: Kohaku - Warden of Memories – by Oscar Fernandez Gonzalez, 3D Character Artist | Spain
"As a sculptor, Character Creator lets me start from a clean, optimized base mesh that I can freely customize in ZBrush. Moving back and forth between ZBrush and CC5 allows me to use each application for what it does best, making the entire workflow faster and more efficient. My favorite feature is being able to test poses on the character with incredible precision. It's fast, intuitive, and a genuinely enjoyable part of the creative process." – Oscar Fernandez Gonzalez
View Oscar's entry and WIP
2nd Place: Erlen From Lemuria's Savage Lands – by Felix Enrique Yaguare Lopez, Student and Freelancer | Venezuela
"Character Creator allowed me to bring my character to life effortlessly. Being able to quickly test and iterate different poses gave me the freedom to explore Erlen in multiple situations, something that would have been impossible in my timeframe, as I joined the contest a month and a half late while finishing my class projects for Libel Academy." – Felix Enrique Yaguare Lopez
View Felix's entry and WIP
3rd Place: Alyssa – by Thivolan Moodley, 3D Sculptor & Freelancer | South Africa
"I was able to use the base mesh to really push the design from start to finish without needing to retopologize or change much else! This helped me focus on sculpting and likeness more!" – Thivolan Moodley
View Thivolan's entry and WIP
Realistic Character Animation
Use iClone to create a realistic animation for a character made with the CC3+ Base. The character model can be customized with Reallusion tools and content or third-party software like ZBrush, Blender, Unreal Engine. Watch their winning entry and testimonials below.
1st Place: Franco Colapino – by Off World, FCGI Cinematics Freelancer | Argentina
"Without Reallusion's tools, achieving this level of quality and ease of iteration in pursuing our goal would not have been possible; the power and creative freedom it provides are immense." – Off World
View Off World's entry and WIP
2nd Place: The Hunt – by Joseph Hoback, 3D | United States
"There's no way I could have gotten as far as I did without the use of an iClone. The mocap informed not only the timing and energy but also the character as a whole." – Joseph Hoback
View Joseph's entry and WIP
3rd Place: Special ops: Lioness – by Hector Mercado, CGI artist & Filmmaker | Dominican Republic
"The new Headshot 3 features, together with the AI-assisted reference image generation and cleanup, really help in getting the character likeness when trying to create a digital double!" – Hector Mercado
View Hector's entry and WIP
Stylized Character Animation
Under this category, contestants use iClone to create a stylized animation for a character made with the CC3+ Base. The character model can be customized with Reallusion tools and content or third-party software like ZBrush, Blender, Unreal Engine. Watch their winning entry and testimonials below.
1st Place: STONE GODZ – by Dazhi Benjamin Sokomba, Animator | Nigeria
"I used iClone for the final real-time render, Character Creator 5 for the main character and AccuRIG for the stone characters." – Dazhi Benjamin Sokomba
View Benjamin's entry and WIP
2nd Place: Moss Fairy – by Affan Shiekh, CGI artist | Pakistan
"Character Creator 5 is amazing. It gets better every year, and I would like more implementations for the Blender addon!" – Affan Shiekh
View Affan's entry and WIP
3rd Place: Max Mad Animation – by Soorena Sardarzadeh, CGI artist & Filmmaker | United States
"With iClone, making animation isn't harder than it needs to be." – Soorena Sardarzadeh
View Soorena's entry and WIP
Best AccuRIG Characters
Powered by AccuRIG, artists can transform static models into fully animatable characters, regardless of topology. The winning characters showcase high sculpting details with attractive poses and professional renders. Reallusion selected four winners from this category, and here are the winners, entries, and respective WIPs.
- Oscar Fernandez Gonzalez (Spain)
- Laura Antonacci (Italy)
- Carolyna Figueiredo (Portugal)
- Stasia Bubnova (Russian Federation)
Special Awards
Special Awards recognize outstanding achievement across specific technical and artistic categories. Beyond their distinctive visual aesthetics, these winning entries demonstrate a deep mastery of 3D pipelines and creative problem-solving techniques. Their entries present compelling character designs, solid anatomy, and exceptional composition. View all winning entries and WIPs.
Best Render
- Vanesa Arambašić (Croatia)
- Jacopo Filo della Torre (Italy)
- Bahar Tavakoli (Iran)
Best Pipeline Use
- David Sujono (Australia)
- Olivier Beguin (Switzerland)
- Ignacio Coronel (Argentina)
- Joachim Jensen (Denmark)
- Jorge Leonardo Ayala Arias (Colombia)
Best Mocap Use
- Sangkoo Lee (Republic of Korea)
Best Digital Double
- Mobin Hivehchi (Iran)
- Frederick Talavera Martinez (Spain)
Best Student Artwork
- Carlos Humberto Rivas Garcia (Venezuela)
Best Costume
- Eva Sophie Cringle (Belgium)
- Myron Mortakis (United States)
- Massimo De Antonis (Italy)
- Saillish (Australia)
- Weedi Masindraoka (Madagascar)
- Sadegh Khavand (Iran)
- Rafael S. Benedicto (Philippines)
- Angel Ricalde (Peru)
Honorable Mentions
Honorable Mentions celebrate standout entries that captivated the judging panel through exceptional dedication, skill, and creative vision. While not taking home a top placement, these artists delivered remarkable craft and passion throughout the competition. View all Honorable Mention entries and WIPs.
- Ariya Hasani (Iran)
- Markus Haertel (Brazil)
- Kurt Boutilier (Canada)
- Onur Erdurak (Turkey)
The judging process for the "2026 Reallusion 3D Character Contest" proved to be quite difficult and took many hours of deliberation. In addition to the top 3 placements in Best Character Animation & Best Character Design, Reallusion also selected 28 winners for AccuRIG characters, Special Awards, and Honorable Mentions. See the Winner Page for winner details and showcases, and we look forward to your entry submission next year!
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Reallusion's 2026 3D Character Contest - Meet the Winners!
