SEBASTIEN MIGLIO: Hello, I'm Sebastien Miglio,
director of project management at Epic Games for Unreal
Engine.
Today I'm going to talk about our soon
to come release Unreal Engine 4.26 and what it
brings to virtual production.
Epic started our virtual production journey
with the intention of helping filmmakers
to make better artistic decisions,
redefine what can be achieved in storytelling,
and erode the boundaries between production phases.
Epic's goal is to ensure Unreal Engine is the go-to platform
for virtual production, where features
are prioritized for filmmakers, while empowering the studio
to use even richer tools and workflows
for their very special needs.
Today we are very excited to present
what we have been working on for virtual production
in our upcoming release of Unreal Engine 4.26.
4.26 aims to advance Unreal Engine as a virtual production
platform to democratize far more of a set of in-camera VFX
capabilities than any other system.
The time is now for in-camera VFX
to cease being an aspirational goal
and start becoming a production reality at scale.
And to do so, our focus has been on three key areas.
First, scaling for large LED volumes by reducing
the amount of hardware needed.
Then allowing improved visual fidelity and first iteration
of light changes while remaining interactive.
Finally, streamlining on site operation
with simpler setup and easier to use tools.
Our primary objective is to give filmmakers and artists
the tools to visualize their creative vision
with the highest possible fidelity.
The next generation virtual production stage
enables filmmakers to capture a significant amount
of visual effects shots in camera
using Unreal Engine to power the surrounding LED screens.
These LED volumes are becoming even larger,
exceeding 20 meters in diameter and 6 meters high
to accommodate large particular set pieces
and allow more flexibility for cinematographers.
To scale with the stage's growth and the increase
of pixel density in the LED panels,
we extended NDisplay to support multi-GPU.
Using Nvidia technology in Quadro GPU,
the inner frustrum can be entirely rendered
on a second GPU, translating to support for 4K resolution
with far less hardware required to render stage.
Combined with Nvidia DLSS, Unreal Engine
can boost frame rates and increase content budget
for rendering fewer pixels while still delivering
high resolution raytraced images.
One of the main benefits of using game engine technology
is that it enables real time lighting changes on stage
while allowing final quality imagery.
Since LED walls are treated as light panels,
Unreal Engine allows DPs to place digital light cards
anywhere in the scene with real time interactive results.
And when you need it, Unreal Engine 4.26
brings GPU light baking on set within minutes rather than
hours by leveraging multi-GPU for those who want to maximize
quality on lighting fidelity.
In addition, 4.26 brings full DMX support
to drive practical lighting kits,
while remaining in sync with the virtual content.
Finally, we added Open Color IO in viewport
to let you choose the color profile you desire,
while being able to ensure color accuracy so
that the scene looks the same on the artist's workstation
as it does on the wall through the camera.
To empower filmmakers to rapidly iterate on new ideas on set,
it is critical to keep the stage as collaborative
and interactive as possible.
Unreal Engine 4.26 is introducing Switchboard,
an extensible Python based application
that controls the many systems interacting
with the scene and generating data on the virtual production
stage.
Its goal is to efficiently monitor and orchestrate
all of the systems and processes spread
across multiple stage computers, getting
them ready for realtime collaboration
within a single click, including deck
recorders in the additional performance capture system.
On The Mandalorian we introduced iPad control
to allow DPs and director to adjust the environment directly
in the volume without having to go back to the brain
bar operators on their workstation.
With 4.26 we are completing the release
of a true web based REST API implementation,
allowing users to expose any Unreal Engine
parameters to applications outside of Unreal Engine.
We are also including a customizable web application
and library of widgets such as dies, pickers, sliders,
and joysticks so that users can deploy
the remote control of Unreal Engine onset on their own.
Several other features were added
to streamline the onset operations, such as level
snapshot to restore the previous take while enabling you to pick
and choose what to restore, time data monitor
to evaluate the different time code sources
and interpolate the correct timing
offsets so all sources are synchronized,
and the stage monitor that connects
to all the Unreal Engine sessions running
so you can glean performance stats and detect any issues.
Unreal Engine 4.26 is also pushing the boundaries
of what can be achieved in engine
for real time animated content.
This release brings amazing features
for pipeline integration, performance capture,
and all content creators.
Robust Unreal Engine support of Alembic and USD
will enable easier integration into a VFX pipeline.
We've added several enhancements and features to these formats.
For USD we are close to having all schema supported
on every platform, Windows, Linux, and MacOS.
This includes light sources, Preview surface materials,
skeletal meshes, blend shapes, and geometry caches
to name a few.
Animation recorded into a sequencer,
such as performance capture, can be exported back to USD.
And several enhancements were made
to easily export UE4 content to USD for better support pipeline
integration.
Unreal Engine 4.26, has on top of regular Alembic import
the ability to stream Alembic directly from Disk.
Streaming is extremely helpful in a situation
where you are doing many iterations of a dynamic cache
and you don't want to go through the import process
over and over.
When final images need to be further refined
in downstream compositing application,
we added the ability to export some render
passes using movie render queue.
This includes object ID, motion vectors, Z-Depth,
and many more.
For movie render queue we have also
added support for professional media codecs,
like Apple ProRes, Avid DNxHR, and 16-bit multi-channel EXR,
all with Open Color IO and Deadline support
for GPU-based content.
For performance capture based workflow,
we are proud to announced that a completely new virtual camera
system will be released.
It offers a vastly improved production
ready experience for camera work that filmmakers
can use out of the box.
In addition, the feature set provides a robust connection
of developer tools specifically tailored
to the cinematographic workflow, making it easier
for developers to customize, extend, or create
virtual cameras.
A user with an iPad will benefit from a new dedicated virtual
camera iOS app with better streaming performance,
support from its user, and a redesigned user experience.
For DIY style performance capture,
the Live Link XR plugin enables off-the-shelf XR devices,
like Vive controllers and trackers,
to be used as Live Link based input streams in Unreal Engine,
supporting things like virtual camera for performance capture
or live camera tracking for live action.
And if users eventually move into higher end solutions,
the lightning workflow will remain the same.
Hair, fur, and feathers in real time
has always been a challenge and has often
been cheated by using card based rendering approximations.
A year ago, Unreal Engine previewed our new hair and fur
rendering and simulation feature,
bringing the ability to render each individual strand of hair,
fur, or feather all in real time.
With 4.26, the feature is becoming production ready,
meaning that hair and fur now supports most Unreal Engine
features, such as depth of field,
level of details, and volumetric fog.
I won't say anything more, as we have a little surprise for you
regarding hair and fur today.
With a new in engine animation feature,
users can now create and modify animation
without leaving the engine.
Clean up motion capture or create new animations
from the ground up with Control Rig in Sequencer.
The new non-linear animation tools in Sequencer
make it easier than ever to stitch together performances.
In 4.26 control rig moves from experimental to beta, providing
riggers and technical animators with the tools
they need to create flexible, dynamic,
and procedural characters, all with artist
friendly interfaces.
Full Python integration allows a team
to customize and automate complex tasks
for any production.
The new experimental full body IK solver
makes it easier to create complex and believable
character performance in context.
The server can be driven through Control Rig.
And even controls through Live Link motion
capture or runtime gameplay by leveraging the new Control Rig
components.
For creating realistic outdoor environments,
Unreal Engine 4.26 brings dynamic time of day lighting
to large landscape, from sky, atmosphere, and cloud,
all seamlessly interacting with a sun and weather
specification.
These new tools provide full artistic freedom
and allow you to bend the law of physics.
The look doesn't have to be realistic,
which is very practical for a cartoony style.
Atmospheric effects can be viewed
from space, and from any time of day and weather.
Volumetric clouds can be authored by artists
to any shape, for instance, these tornadoes,
or a bunny shaped cloud.
As you can see, Unreal Engine 4.26 brings tons of enhancement
to virtual production.
We're continuing to push the limits of what
can be done for real time in-camera VFX and animated CG
content by scaling Unreal Engine to feed larger LED volumes,
improving the light fidelity while remaining interactive
for on set changes, streamlining operation with easier to use
tools, and adding a new virtual camera for performance capture
work.
And we are also empowering all content creators
to deliver even more stunning content and better integration
into the existing pipeline with support
for USD and Alembic streaming, export for render passes,
and support for professional media codecs,
and adding new creative tools, such as hair and fur,
animation in Sequencer, and realistic environment lighting
and weather systems.
Unreal Engine 4.26 is already available in preview.
We expect to release it before the end of the year.
And we're excited to see the amazing things that you
will be able to create with it.
The Unreal Engine team is very excited
to be launching all of the new features in 4.26.
And we hope that you are equally excited to use it.
Thank you for taking the time to listen,
and I'm now going to hand over to another Alasdair Coull
from Weta Digital who have been kicking the tires on 4.26
with some of their recent projects,
including a new animated short that we are premiering today.