We are excited to bring you our latest release, which includes:

  • Object tracking workflow
  • Keyer improvements
  • Air-gapped licensing
  • Color-managed viewport in Editor
  • DMX control (Art-Net) and Slider widget
  • Native integration with Unreal 4.24
  • and much more

Object tracking workflow

Adding interaction between the real and the virtual world enhances your virtual production massively. With Pixotope 1.3 the object tracker setup to allow your talent to walk around AR objects, pick them up or interact with them in any other way just became super easy. Object trackers can be configured and calibrated in the same way as setting up camera tracking. And with our object tracker groups you can configure object trackers in independent tracking spaces.

We currently support object tracking with Stype Follower.

Check out 1.3 | Setting up object tracking

Keyer improvements

  • Subpixel erode
  • Improved background color picker logic
  • Separate color channel keying
  • Improved luma despill/respill
  • Automatic despill of bg color

It is now easier than ever to get a good chroma key in Pixotope. We have added additional color separation tools to help key colors closer to green, like yellow, and extract additional detail like fine strands of hair without increasing the noise levels.

The new Subpixel erode allows for extra fine control over edge treatment, dealing with issues from in-camera chroma-subsampling and sharpening. 

Improvements to the keying algorithm allow for more predictable background separation. The new algorithm also improves shadow extraction and noise levels.

Air-gapped licensing

The broadcast infrastructure is critical and therefore has to adhere to high security standards like not allowing production machines to access the internet. With our offline license activation you can easily get and release licenses for your air-gapped machines.

Check out 1.3 | Getting a license for an offline machine (air-gapped)

Our option to temporarily take machines offline continues to work as before.

HDR and color workflow is now complete

Getting the look and feel of your scenes right from the start is even more important when working in a real-time virtual production environment. The HDR and color workflow, which was introduced in Pixotope 1.2, has now been completed by providing a color-managed viewport in the Editor. The artist can now prepare the scene with the right color management in mind.

Check out 1.3 | Color managed preview in Editor

DMX control (Art-Net) and Slider widget

Controlling physical and virtual lights simultaneously is another step towards perfecting your real-time composition. With our ArtDmx Light Controller Plugin and our slider widget, controlling physical lights (via Art-Net/DMX) from a Pixotope control panel becomes easy to set up and use.

Check out 1.3 | Art-Net / DMX control

Support for controlling virtual lights via Art-Net available upon request.

Unreal Engine 4.24

Pixotope 1.3 offers native integration with Unreal 4.24.3. Among a wide range of new features, here are the highlights we think you will find particularly useful as a Pixotope user:

The new nondestructive, layer-based Landscape workflows enable you to build more interesting and engaging outdoor environments where the terrain automatically adapts to other elements in the world. The Sky Atmosphere component generates a physically accurate sky that can be updated dynamically depending on the time of day, and it can be viewed from the ground or from the air to create realistic-looking planetscapes. The new experimental strand-based hair and fur system brings characters to life with realistic, flowing hair. With Screen-Space Global Illumination, you can achieve natural, light-filled spaces using fewer resources.

Datasmith is now available to all Unreal Engine users, bringing high-fidelity, whole-scene conversion to the masses! The new Visual Dataprep makes automating data preparation workflows more accessible so smaller, design-focused teams can benefit from them. The Live Universal Scene Description (USD) Stage Actor creates a direct link to the USD file on disk for faster iteration and better collaboration. 

Some highlights:

  • New: Screen Space Global Illumination (Beta)
  • New: Live Universal Scene Description Stage (Beta)
  • New: Datasmith and Unreal Studio for Everyone!
  • New: Hair and Fur Rendering and Simulation (Experimental)
  • New: Control Rig Track in Sequencer (Experimental)
  • New: Audio Mixed Modulation (Beta)
  • New: Ray Tracing Improvements 
  • New: Variant Manager Improvements
  • New: Pixel Streaming Improvements
  • New: AVID DNxHR Support
  • New: Virtual Scouting Improvements (Beta)
  • New: Virtual Studio Sample Updates
  • New: 3D Text (Experimental)
  • New: Added TIFF texture import
  • New: Added support for translucent objects in reflections
  • New: Added mipmap generation support for scene capture 2D render target
  • New: The DepthOfField engine show flag is no longer shipping-only

See Unreal Engine release notes for a full list of features: https://docs.unrealengine.com/en-US/Support/Builds/ReleaseNotes/4_24/index.html

For a complete changelog, please 

  1. Log in to the user section of the → Pixotope Cloud 
  2. Go to Downloads