IKinema has developed a virtual reality extension for its full-body inverse kinematics middleware RunTime, taking its existing capabilities mainstream and enabling developers to easily merge motion capture with VR — and allowing players to capture their movement in real-time to experience themselves as highly accurate, believable characters within virtual environments.
RunTime integrates with Unreal Engine 4, enabling characters to interact with props, scale obstacles and respond naturally to changing digital environments — all in real-time. IKinema has extended this integration to allow for easy creation of game rigs and behaviors for VR games and experiences.
“The body is back in the game,” announced CEO Alexandre Pechev. “With RunTime for VR, developers can now create within minutes much more advanced experiences in which the body – especially hands, elbows and arms – interacts accurately with the environment. Users will no longer see floating props without arms – they’ll be able to look down and see a complete, animated body within their virtual environment that accurately syncs with weaponry and props.”
Impulse Gear is the first developer to take advantage of IKinema’s RunTime for VR, utilizing the technology for its latest project, Farpoint. Announced at E3 earlier this year, Farpoint is described as “an unnerving VR space adventure set on a hostile alien planet.” You can check out a trailer here.
Pechev foresees advanced, multiplayer VR games will soon join the marketplace, giving players a must more believable immersive experience, being able to see precise full-body actions of other players.
RunTime is already in wide use by animation and game studios. The extension provides additional tools such as a dedicated VR rig editor in which VR controllers and head-mounted displays can be associated with any character, allowing developers to create a VR rig and being full body animating in less than 10 minutes. There is also a dedicated VR solving node that combines upper body animation via the controllers with foot placement for ultimate immersion.
RunTime for VR is available for download at http://www.ikinema.com.
