There has been a lot of excitement over the past few months surrounding the use of mixed reality (MR) when either showcasing or even using virtual realty (VR), giving those watching a real idea of what VR is doing for the user. Now it has been confirmed that Epic Games is developing MR support for its engine, Unreal Engine 4 (UE4).
The development of the engine came from a tweet by James Golding, Lead Programmer at Epic Games, who shared a recent slide from their Unreal Summit in Korea this year. The slide, as pictured below, outlines that due to the heightened popularity of MR as a whole, there has been a decision to create support for it in the engine. The way it will be doing this is through support of static or tracked cameras, and there will also be support for cameras which are either near or far so that each scene can successfully be composited.
This newly developed support would mean that those capturing footage would be able to directly put it into the engine, with a clear input setting. This is an example of another idea that bridges gaps in creating easier and more user friendly ways of VR creation and in turn creativity. The example that is used in the slide is from the demonstration and advert of the HTC Vive.
The Unreal Summit in Korea took place just over a week ago, and although the outline of the summit is all in Korean, what is understood is that this slide could have come from Epic Games’ Technical Director, Nick Whiting, who spoke about the past, present, and future of VR and augmented reality (AR) within the company.
For the latest developments onthe use of MR in UE4 as well as all news and updates in the world of VR, make sure to check back with VRFocus.
