Brainstorm Suite 4 Features Tighter Unreal Engine Integration, New LAYERS Feature

Real-time 3D graphics and virtual studio solutions manufacturer Brainstorm has released Brainstorm Suite 4, a major upgrade to its InfinitySet, Aston, and eStudio solutions that includes a number of unique features designed to enhance content creation and output. In addition to a tighter integration and control of Epic Games’ Unreal Engine, Suite 4 provides advanced features like simultaneous renders, multiple outputs and additional hardware support.

With Suite 4, InfinitySet and Aston greatly improve their capabilities for creating high-quality photorealistic content  for real-time graphics, virtual sets, augmented reality, or broadcast workflows in any resolution.

Suite 4 introduces a key feature in how Aston and InfinitySet deal with broadcast workflows, while providing additional playout possibilities. The new LAYERS feature is driven by Brainstorm Suite 4’s ability to create Simultaneous Multiple Independent Renders using a single workstation. With LAYERS, Brainstorm Suite 4 can now deliver several outputs from a single instance, in both Aston and InfinitySet, or combine several outputs in a single one as required.

InfinitySet 4 also gains major updates to the rendering features and especially the management and compatibility with the Unreal Engine. This effectively enhances the way the Combined Render Engine, Brainstorm’s seamless integration between the company’s eStudio render engine and the Unreal Engine, works in practice. Another key development is that InfinitySet now features an Unreal-native behaviour, so InfinitySet users can achieve anything Unreal Engine provides in a workflow fully integrated into Unreal.

Brainstorm is also introducing the InfinitySet Unreal Engine Controller, a new module that directly controls Unreal Engine from InfinitySet’s own interface, adding a user-friendly, live production-oriented control interface. The Unreal Engine Controller can identify any blueprints, objects and properties in the UE project, and control them directly from InfinitySet, which results in a new and unique workflow that does not require previously prepared blueprints in Unreal Engine to create actions or edit the project. Unreal Engine Controller works in a bi-directional way, so not only can blueprints, objects and properties be controlled from InfinitySet’s interface, but it can also transfer any input to Unreal for use as a texture, including movies, live video, images or even Aston projects with StormLogic.

On top of that, the InfinitySet Unreal Engine Controller provides additional compatibility for video hardware devices not available in Unreal Engine, including support and driver updates for video IO boards and virtually any tracking device.

Aston 4, Brainstorm’s 2D/3D motion graphics creation, CG and playout solution, also gains a number of enhancements that further improve its capabilities, like shader-based 2D fonts or the ability to open multiple projects simultaneously for playout. And thanks to the LAYERS feature, the Aston family of applications is enhanced with the addition of Aston Multichannel. With this, Aston provides extended workflow possibilities, including playout of multiple channels from a single workstation or from different workstations, which can also be combined with multiple simultaneous projects. Additionally, InfinitySet now includes an Aston Crosspoint for further flexibility. Aston now takes full advantage of NVIDIA’s GPU movie decoding, while its PBR material rendering has been further enhanced.

“With Suite 4 we have made a significant leap forward on what can be achieved in virtual sets, augmented reality and real-time broadcast motion graphics,” says Ricardo Montesa, Brainstorm’s CEO and founder. “We have worked hard to match and even surpass the high-end requirements of our customers. So now the integration of InfinitySet with Unreal Engine is even tighter, and we have included industry-unique features like the Unreal Engine Controller, that can fully control not only the Unreal Engine projects but also its blueprints, objects and properties directly from InfinitySet’s own interface. We’re very excited with this release and the response received from our customers is excellent.”

Brainstorm is also introducing the Web Controller, an independent, HTML5-based application designed to control the Playout mode of InfinitySet from a remote computer, using Ethernet protocols, and simplifying the setup and control of multiple workstation installations.

The production version of Brainstorm Suite 4 is available for all customers, and will be demonstrated at NAB 2020 at the Brainstorm booth SL2812.