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5th February 2020

Ncam AR Suite v1.1 Release

We are very pleased to announce an entirely new suite of tools for the Unreal Engine that provide a complete solution for delivering photorealistic virtual production in real time.

The Ncam AR Suite is available as either a Lite or Standard version. Both versions include all the  essential tools, an open source framework, and augmented reality pipelines to empower you to unleash your creative potential and easily bring real-time, photorealistic augmented reality to your productions. Highlights include:

Ncam AR Suite Lite

Compatible with Unreal Engine 4.23.X or 4.24.X and is included with Ncam Reality.

  • Complete solution for producing Virtual Studio and Virtual Overlay augmented reality within UE4.
  • Open source, modular and extensible design.
  • An intuitive wizard allows new virtual production projects to be created and configured in minutes.
  • Provided with complete video tutorials, quick start guide and reference manual.
  • Built from the ground up using native UE4 frameworks to integrate seamlessly with:
    • Live Link – Providing instant, live camera tracking data to UE4.
    • Media Framework – Supporting combinations of AJA and Black Magic SDI cards up to 6G 4k.
    • Composure – For configurable compositing of live video, virtual graphics and visual effects.
    • Sequencer – To record and replay Ncam camera tracking.
    • Multi-User Editing – Allowing many Ncam cameras to share one virtual space that can be modified live.
    • nDisplay – To drive LED walls using Ncam tracking data including off-axis (POV) projection.
    • Timecode Synchronizer – For perfectly aligning all data sources together.
  • Greatly improved performance over the previous NcamAR plug-in.

Ncam AR Suite

Compatible with Unreal Engine 4.23.X or 4.24.X and available to customers on a subscription model.

  • Includes all features of Ncam AR Suite Lite and extends it with advanced rendering pipelines.
  • Photographic and rendering effects boost realism:
    • Depth Of Field – Naturally pull focus to and from virtual objects.
    • Screen Space Reflections – See the video stream reflected in the virtual objects.
  • Virtual Overlay – Render and composite virtual objects seamlessly into a live video stream:
    • Shadow Receivers (Hold Outs) – Cast shadows from virtual objects onto the video stream.
  • Virtual Studio – Virtual replacement of green screen and compositing with keyed elements:
    • 3D Garbage Mattes – Mask areas of the video to extend your virtual scene past the edges of the green screen.
    • Support for the Ncam Keyer and Real Depth.
  • Two extended rendering modes add more experimental and advanced features:
    • Lens Flare and Bloom – Advanced optical effects.
    • Light-Wrap – Seamless blending of the edges of virtual elements with the video stream.

x Included
* Partial support
** Experimental with limited support

 

Why is Ncam AR Suite Lite being released as Open Source?

We’ve made Ncam AR Suite to empower you to unleash your creative potential and use Ncam Camera Tracking to easily bring real-time, photorealistic augmented reality to your productions. We believe that by giving you a complete tool suite that has no cost and no restrictions your creativity will have no limitations.

 

Which SDI devices does Ncam AR Suite Lite currently support?

The Ncam AR Suite is compatible with any plug-in for Unreal’s MediaFramework, allowing multiple channels on one or more SDI devices to be used simultaneously. Most notably this includes support for the AJA and BlackMagic plug-ins which are available on the Unreal Marketplace.

Recommended SDI devices:

  • AJA Corvid 44, AJA Kona 4, AJA Corvid 88, AJA Kona 5
  • Black Blackmagic Design Decklink 4k, UltraStudio HD, Decklink Micro IO cards.

Which video formats are supported by Ncam AR Suite Lite?

Ncam AR Suite Lite supports DF and NDF progressive 3G video using AJA and BlackMagic devices. This includes all progressive HD and Full HD standards at up to 60 fps.  4K video is also supported for frame rates up to 30fps.

 

Can Ncam AR Suite support multiple input and output SDI video streams?

Yes, Ncam AR Suite has a modular video I/O architecture which allows multiple SDI devices and channels to be configured to provide any combination of video inputs and outputs.

 

Can Ncam AR Suite be used with an external keyer?

Yes, as Ncam AR Suite can be configured to use multiple video inputs and outputs, it can support separate Key and Fill SDI sources which are produced by external keyers.

 

Will Ncam AR Suite support interlaced video?

Ncam AR Suite supports input interlaced video only and output of interlaced video is not currently supported. As Ncam AR Suite depends on Unreal’s core frameworks, interlaced output will not be supported until the Unreal Media Framework does also.

 

Can the Ncam AR Suite be used alongside Motion Capture  technology?

Yes, the Ncam AR Suite is fully compatible with Unreal’s Live Link which can be used to integrate multiple motion capture and Ncam camera tracking sources together in Real Time.

 

Can I use multiple Ncam systems together to view different POVs of a single scene?

Yes, a network of UE4 servers that are each connected to a single Ncam system can inhabit and interact within the same virtual world. This is made possible through the Unreal Engine’s Multi-User Editing tool which allows many Unreal Game or Editor instances to share the same scene. Using Multi-User Editing it is even possible to stream AR from multiple cameras whilst making live changes to the shared scene that they are viewing.

 

Please speak to sales@ncam-tech.com for details on how to upgrade to Ncam AR Suite Standard.

For customers with a UE4 plug-in subscription, please request your copy of Ncam AR Suite Standard for Unreal Engine 4.23 or 4.24 to support@ncam-tech.com.

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