Projection of Unreal Engine content with LightAct 3.6.0

When we introduced Unreal Engine integration back in 2018, we were blown away by the endless possibilities this combination gives you. It combines the beauty and performance of Unreal Engine real-time rendering with LightAct’s media server functionalities.

A large majority of projects using Unreal Engine & LightAct are projection mapping projects (you can have a look at some of them in our showcase).

In all of these projects, the content flow is this:

  1. LightAct takes all the incoming information and passes the data to Unreal Engine.
  2. Unreal Engine takes the data and renders the content. Then it sends it back to LightAct using Spout.
  3. LightAct grabs Unreal content, applies all the required warping & blending and pushes it to projectors.

While this pipeline works well, we found that there is one drawback: sending of the content from Unreal back to LightAct consumes a significant amount of computer resources and adds a few frames of latency. 

So we thought: “Wouldn’t it be great if our users could push the content to projectors straight from Unreal Engine if they wanted?”.

That’s why we are very happy to introduce UnrealLink – a new feature in LightAct 3.6.0.

UnrealLink allows you to create nDisplay configuration files from LightAct. The files include the information about all the projectors, their intrinsic and extrinsic properties, their blend masks, their mapping to physical outputs as well as the IP address of the servers.

The UnrealLink workflow is very simple:

  1. import the 3D model of the projection object into LightAct. The location, rotation and scale of the model should match the one you’ve got in Unreal Engine.
  2. Calibrate and blend the projectors in LightAct using 3DCal or CamCal.
  3. Create nDisplay configuration files with UnrealLink.
  4. Use nDisplay Launcher to launch your packaged game using these configuration files.

UnrealLink does not replace the traditional workflow where you stream the content back to LightAct. In fact, in some cases you will still want to stream the content back to LightAct.

See the entire Changelog

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LightAct 3.5.0 is out with CamCal and many other features

LightAct 3.5.0 is out! It includes so many new features it is hard to choose the ones we are most excited about. But if we absolutely had to choose one, we’d probably go with CamCal camera projection calibration feature closely followed by new integrations such as AJA, Blackmagic, Deltacast and Stype.

CamCal

CamCal is a camera calibration toolkit. It allows you to quickly and automatically calibrate projectors.

In the last few projects we worked on, projector calibration was definitely the most tedious task. That’s despite 3DCal feature. What’s more, we knew that every time the projectors are moved the process will have to be repeated.

So after Tampa Water Street project, we immediately started working on camera calibration feature. Now, it is finally here and you can see how it works in the video below.

The only thing you need to do manually is to calibrate the camera(s), however this has to be done only at the beginning of the project (or if you move the camera).

When the projectors have been moved, all you need to do is just run CamCal algorithm again and the projectors will be calibrated automatically.

New integrations (video capture and camera tracking)

We are very excited that we added support for AJA, Blackmagic design and Deltacast video capture cards as well as Stype camera tracking. 

Custom events

We added the ability to create Custom events. They act similarly to variables, but instead of a value, they save lifeline state. They are especially useful to reduce the number of connections between the nodes and to transfer events from one layer to another.

QuickUI

QuickUI is a window where you can add quick & accessible controls for your variables and events. It’s a completely customizable tool to control all the essential parameters of your show.

You can easily add a variable or an event by checking “Expose in QuickUI” checkbox in the properties of a variable or an event.

Perspective Thrower

We added Perspective thrower. A tool to throw content on video screens just as a projector would. With lens shifts and field of view. Works perfectly with Stype camera tracking node.

See the entire Changelog

Make Magic

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