Viz Engine/Viz Artist 3.11 Upgrades Rendering, Animation and Streaming
Viz Engine / Viz Artist 3.11 enables producers to upgrade the quality and complexity of their graphics by rendering in a full high dynamic colour range, using new streaming systems, adding more sophisticated, real-time motion for AR and increasing Viz Engine's render quality as far as possible.
IP Engine
On the engineering side, integrating full SMPTE 2110 IP workflows based on IP cards from Matrox makes Viz Engine ready for future IP-based productions and workflows. It can composite NDI and SDI inputs, stream via WebRTC and accept up to 16 RTP stream inputs.
Open-source WebRTC - Web Real-Time Communication - makes web browsers and mobile applications suitable for real-time communication using simple APIs. It allows audio and video communication to work inside web pages by allowing direct peer-to-peer communication, without installing plugins or downloading native apps. Supported by Google, Microsoft, Mozilla and Opera, WebRTC is currently being standardised so that RTP applications can be developed for browsers, mobile platforms and IoT devices that allow them all to communicate via common protocols.
High Dynamic Range I/O
By adding HDR out and live inputs, as well as HDR clip playback as DVE, Viz Engine displays the full range of colours per pixel available in video footage, and supports true, live UHD / HDR production.
Viz Engine has also upgraded its font rendering quality by utilising the recent GPU-based vector rendering systems that keep fonts sharp and clear at all resolutions or scale factors.
Real-time Motion for AR Productions
Perhaps the most interesting update to Viz Engine and Viz Artist is the introduction of bones and skin based mesh deformation with physically based rendering. Consequently, Viz Engine/ Viz Artist 3.11 can now support more complex storytelling with greater interactivity. Very detailed 3D models can be imported not only with predefined animations, but can also be driven by live motion capture streamed to Viz Engine.
The Vizrt software can now import and composite volumetric photoscans. Scans of this type reveal fine detail recorded by a large array of high-resolution cameras positioned around a subject to capture its shape and textures from many angles. All of this image information is compiled in software that calculates the camera positions and extracts a 3D point cloud from which the 3D model is derived. Viz Engine can then render out the model as a 3D AR element. Such models can be imported into Viz Artist with pre-rendered animations. However, real-time motion capture can also be applied at the studio. Signals from performers wearing motion capture markers can be tracked by camera arrays, solved and streamed for retargeting onto a 3D model in real time. www.vizrt.com
