Volumetric video pioneer Arcturus releases several updates for its industry-leading HoloSuite platform, including a new beta feature developed to connect volumetric video clips, and seamlessly blend them together. With this ability, content creators can populate full virtual production scenes with real people, build live-action branching narratives with no gaps and offer original experiences for the metaverse using people instead of CG avatars.
“Volumetric video isn’t just offering content creators new ways to do old things better; with the right tools, it offers possibilities that simply weren’t there before. Our new tools will open up a huge range of potential uses across multiple industries, and soon we will begin to see content unlike anything that’s ever been seen before,” said Arcturus CEO Kamal Mistry.
The HoloSuite update sees the eagerly anticipated ‘Blend’ tool released in beta for the first time. With Blend, HoloSuite users can take a volumetric video clip featuring a live-action performance, and connect that clip to other related clips, creating an imperceptible transition from one segment to another. Artists can also use Blend to loop the end of a clip back to its start, creating a recording of a photorealistic subject moving and interacting that continually repeats.
The possibilities range across multiple industries and platforms, but game engine users with the HoloSuite plugin will see an immediate benefit. Creators can now take a blended volumetric video clip and insert it into a digital environment to populate a virtual scene with live-action 3D performances, without needing to create countless digidoubles, or try to force 2D video into a 3D setting. The Blend feature will also give users the ability to build live-action branching narratives with no perceptible change between video tracks. HoloSuite can take multiple recordings of a subject and smoothly blend them together, giving the end-user a seamless experience as they progress down multiple paths based on their choices. That will give creators a completely original way to explore new forms of digital storytelling, build AR/VR experiences and more.
Blend is the result of years of research and development by the award-winning Arcturus team, as well as requests from volumetric video users. Working hand-in-hand with HoloSuite users and clients, Arcturus will continue the current beta testing over the next few months, fine-tuning the Blend functionality and ensuring both compatibility and stability. Once the beta period has concluded, Blend will become a standard feature. All current HoloSuite users will be able to participate in the beta.
In addition to the new beta tool, HoloSuite will receive a host of quality-of-life improvements and upgrades. Unity users with the HoloSuite plugin will now find improved OMS playback, offering better viewing controls for volumetric video files within the game engine. Additional support for Unreal Engine 5 OMS playback is on the way as well.
Updates include:
- 4DViews Capture Import – New native file support will allow users to directly import files from 4Dviews.
- Generate ‘Smooth Normals’ – HoloSuite users can generate ‘smooth normals’ to create better surfaces for re-lighting, and allow for quick lighting changes on volumetric subjects in game engines.
- New Lighting Preferences – Environmental lighting can now directly be added within HoloEdit for more dynamic viewing.