OTOY founder and CEO Jules Urbach announces the deal to include Octane Render into all versions of Unity
Unity Technologies has announced new tools and features for enhanced graphics and performance across VR and AR development, including a fully integrated version of OTOY Octane Render.
Announced at Unity’s Unite event in Los Angeles, Octane Render will be included in all licenses – including the free version – and will look to complement Unity’s real-time processing by rendering assets offline for optimised end results for a wide range of purposes in gaming, movies, and increasingly for product design verifications and visualisations.
The renders generated can be exported into an ORBX media file and published to the cloud, from where they can be played back at high graphical fidelity – a claimed 18k on the Samsung Gear VR headset.
The move should enable greater photorealism inside Unity’s game-engine software, which lends itself well to the increasing demands of designers.
Numerous other updates and features to support VR and AR creators in Unity were also revealed.
Video playback is a common scenario, especially in VR and with the growing amount of 360 video content available. To that end, Unity previewed a completely new video player, coming soon. Rebuilt from scratch with performance in mind, the video player aims to make it easier to import and smoothly play 4k video and seamlessly-rendered 360 VR videos.
Unity also revealed the new version of its EditorVR authoring tool and confirmed it will be available in December.
At launch, the package will be completely open-sourced and feature an open API to easily extend, adapt, and customize tooling to suit individual needs.
“Graphics are at the core of everything we do, and today’s updates will ensure Unity developers have a strong foundation for creating compelling content across all platforms,” said Unity Technologies CEO John Riccitiello.
“With new tools like EditorVR and Timeline, we continue to focus on solving hard problems for creators today, enabling success, and laying the groundwork for years to come.”
