Virtual Production Features Coming in Unreal Engine 5.3

With the upcoming release of Unreal Engine 5.3, creators will have access to a range of new rendering, animation and simulation features across the entirety of Unreal Engine. In this article we'll be focusing on the latest and greatest virtual production features coming to Unreal Engine 5.3.

SMPTE 2110 for ICVFX

The Unreal Engine 5.3 release completes the implementation of a next-generation ICVFX stage deployment via an end-to-end SMPTE 2110-based IP video signal flow with nDisplay. SMPTE 2110 support enables productions to maximize the available hardware resources on stage, with this increased efficiency empowering the potential for higher-resolution inner frustums and lower latency.

SMPTE 2110-based configurations allow for:

• Render the inner frustum once and share it with the other render nodes in the cluster, avoiding the redundancy of each node re-rendering the inner frustum for determinism.

• Dedicate the resources of an entire render node to the inner frustum to leverage all available resources to display the highest-possible quality on the pixels seen in camera.

• Framelock each render node with a native SMPTE 2110 sync policy that ensures Unreal Engine output remaining in phase with the camera.

• Output the resulting renders to the LED processors via SMPTE 2110, eliminating the need for Display Port and/or HDMI converters.

Anamorphic Lens Calibrations

Unreal Engine 5.3 adds an Anamorphic Lens Model and Solver to the Lens Tool to be used with Lens Assets, making it possible to solve Anamorphic lens distortion.

Using the Lens Components, Users will also be able to add Anamorphic Lens Model distortion to CineCameraActors and render distortion effects within the engine. Providing the ability to pre-visualise shots and cinematics with profiled anamorphic lenses.

New CineCameraRigRail

A new Rig Rail Actor tailored towards advanced cinematic and virtual camera workflows. The new rig rail adds a number of additional features for further cinematic control, including:

Composition Control: New ability to store camera Focus, Iris, and Zoom in rail points, allowing the rail to drive more complex compositions.

Speed Visualization: See your speed along any point of the rail through a heat map applied to the rail mesh and avoiding any surprises during recording.

Rail Drive Control: Users can automate camera moves using a variety of different drive modes including:

Manual: Drive your rail position from Sequencer or external input

Duration: Drive your rail position to complete your move in a set amount of time

Speed: Drive your rail position at a set speed

OCIO for Texture Conversions

Unreal Engine 5.3 furthers it's support for OpenColorIO; with the addition of leveaging OpenColorIO within texture conversions. Aiding to ensure assets look correct regardless of where they may have been authored, and maximizing consistency across the colour pipeline for entire projects.

All of us here at On-Set Facilities are excited test and explore the new workflows possible with Unreal Engine 5.3. To find out more on the upcoming features available across the entirety of the engine, read the full Unreal Engine 5.3 Roadmap here.