22 TECHFEED Virtual Sets
is crucial to ensuring that the real world matches up seamlessly with the virtual world,” says Nic Hatch. “Ncam’s recently released AR Suite powered by version 4.23 of the Unreal Engine is able to take all the Ncam data and produce a final keyed and composited image. All these elements have been designed from the ground up internally at Ncam.” This integration of the Unreal Engine (UE) from Epic Games as the 3D renderer in many proprietary virtual set solutions has pushed the wow factor for a couple of years now, but tools built around this photorealistic real-time game engine continue to impress and be refined. An example is the Reality Engine composting software from Turkey-based Zero Density. “Reality Engine’s unique architecture allows Hollywood-level visual effects in live production and the node-based compositing and keying tools enable the most photorealistic output,” claims Kaçmaz. “Zero Density not only provides the main system, but also the necessary automation, monitoring and controlling interfaces. The GROUP OF BROADCAST ORGANISATIONS TOUSE HIGH-ENDVIRTUAL STUDIO TECHNOLOGY UNTIL NOW, IT HAS BEEN THE PRIVILEGE OF A SELECT
system is designed to run on multiple Unreal Engine instances that are all controlled and managed as one. “Our Reality Keyer product works with a clean plate and combines this with the system’s tracking functionality to produce a mesh representation of any studio green screen cyclorama,” continues Kaçmaz. “It’s implemented as a shader inside UE4. The system’s use of projection mapping of the clean plate assists the keying and makes the system much more advanced than just
a normal chroma keyer. It is the world’s only real-time image-based keyer that works on GPU, preserving real environment details such as contact shadows, transparent objects and sub-pixel details like hair.” Russell says: “With almost everyone in the virtual solutions market offering graphics solutions that are based on the Unreal gaming engine, it has become increasingly difficult for customers to differentiate between vendors, and increasingly hard for vendors to add value. Ross has chosen to focus on the twin issues of configuration and control. “Our virtual solutions control platform is called UX and we’ve deliberately made it intuitive and extremely customisable. The graphical user interface is very easy to use and comes installed on a touchscreen PC for virtual set camera calibration, scene manipulation, media replacement, event triggering, MOS newsroom integration, animation control and robotic camera movement control. The application provides seamless integration with tracking systems and real-time 3D rendering engines such as Ross Video’s XPression and Voyager.” Aximmetry is a Hungarian company that had its start in designing video solutions for stage. Its most recent focus has been seamless integration of real and virtual
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