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Epic Games just announced the acquisition of Capturing Reality.
Capturing Reality is known for RealityCapture, a photogrammetry/3D scanning software that can reconstruct real scenes or objects in 3D using photos or laser scanning technologies. RealityCapture is one of the leading tools in this market, and users have been praising its processing speed.
However, RealityCapture was quite expensive compared to similar tools, such as Metashape or 3DF Zephyr. A perpetual licence was worth 15 000€ (there were also other ways to use the product, such as “Pay-Per-Input” licences aimed at occasional users). Epic Games is of course well aware that this price point prevented some potential customers to use RealityCapture, and new pricing plans are announced. Acquiring a perpetual licence is now almost 5 times cheaper, and the prices of “Pay-per-input” licences have also been reduced.
This announcement should be put into context : Epic Games already owns Quixel Megascans, and RealityCapture has been one of the tools used to create these 3D assets. Teddy Bergsman, Senior Director, Quixel at Epic Games, explains that “[they] are beyond excited to welcome Capturing Reality to our team, and to accelerate our shared vision to enable anyone to scan the world”.
Michal Jancosek and Martin Bujnak, co-founders of Capturing Reality, explain in the press release that they are delighted to join Epic Games, and that they wish to “move the photogrammetry industry forward“.
Epic Games gives a few hints about this future. The announcemant states that “Epic plans to integrate Capturing Reality’s powerful photogrammetry software into the Unreal Engine ecosystem, making it even easier for developers to upload images and create photorealistic 3D models in instants. Capturing Reality will continue support and development for partners across industries like gaming, visual effects, film, surveying, architecture, engineering, construction and cultural heritage. This also includes companies that do not use Unreal Engine.”
In other words, Epic Games might be willing to launch a cloud service for photogrammetry tied to Unreal Engine, alongside the existing RealityCapture standalone software.
Last, but not least, if you already own a Capturing Reality licence, you can check out this FAQ, which includes information about licence upgrade and accounts migration.
