Announcing Optim | Visualize, Optimize, and Customize your real-time workflow

Development Pipeline & Plugins
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Introduction

Announcing Optim, a groundbreaking python application for massively improving Datasmith workflow efficiency. Save time, money, and excess effort by utilizing Optim’s powerful rule and filter system to customize, optimize, and automate your Datasmith & CAD file imports. Our rules allow for the mass editing of lightmap resolution, generation of LOD’s, reassignment of materials and much more.

We at Theia Interactive know the challenges importing Datasmith & CAD files into Unreal Engine. Our projects can take hundreds of man-hours to import, optimize, and maximize visual quality. Now, after creating and introducing Optim into our own workflow, we’ve dramatically reduced that time.

Optim was created from the ground up to be modular, effective, and easy to use. Our rules easily allow for actions to be designated to user-filtered elements. For example, rules can be created to: disable the import of screws, merge stacks of books, reassign trees from your Datasmith file to ones from your Unreal project, adjust light group intensities, and so much more.

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Milestones

On 24 September 2019, Optim refresh released to Open Beta.

On 19 March 2019, Optim open beta announced at GTC 2019! Sign up now at theia.io/Optim

On 11 January 2019, Optim was featured in the Unreal Engine blog!

On 08 November 2018, Optim received an Unreal Dev Grant!

On 05 November 2018, Optim entered it’s closed Alpha!

Core Functionality

  • Visualize file information before importing
  • Optimize Geometry, Materials, Lighting, and more
  • Customize how your file will be imported
  • Automate your imports by having Optim take control
  • Configure, save, and re-use powerful rules to put your workflow on the fast track
  • And so much more!

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About Theia Interactive

Theia Interactive has been pioneering dataprep with Unreal Engine for over 4 years with demanding platforms like VR, AR, and mobile. Some of our projects featured by Epic Games include: Harley-Davidson AR and the Virtual Groundbreaking.

Screenshots

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Documentation

Supported File Types

Follow us on for the latest up-to-date information!

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Looks pretty nifty, few questions. Is it a plugin that functions inside ue4? or does it involve some other software too? Does it change the structure of the assets at all? IE. Are things still static mesh actors and not a new optim asset? Lastly, can we strip out all of the built in blueprints and gamemodes without the importer being affected?

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Hello spazfirem!

I’m the lead developer on Optim and I’ll be glad to answer your questions!

Q: Is it a plugin that functions inside UE4? Or does it involve some other software too?
A: Optim is a tool that functions inside of the Unreal Engine Editor. Outside software might be used in the future for further optimization features and keeping Optim up-to-date.

Q: Does it change the structure of the assets at all? I.E: Are things still static mesh actors and not a new optim asset?
A: No, Optim does not change the structure of the assets. A static mesh will be a static mesh actor and so on.

Q: Can we strip out all of the built in blueprints and gamemodes without the importer being affected?
A: No, built-in blueprints cannot be stripped out. However, these can be enabled, disabled, and configured inside of Optim itself. They will not be included in the import if disabled or not in use. As for game modes, we currently do not include any game modes.

4

Your tools are highly relevant for us (Building Information Modelling) and your annoncement of a closed alpha arrives on point ! :slight_smile:

Sub’d to the testing phase, we did a few python scripts here and there a few months ago, but a whole user interface to create rules is quite the treat !

5

Fantastic! For me wokring with testing unreal studio for a car company this is just amazing!

6

Wow, this is a real time saver! Signing up for thew Alpha :slight_smile:

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Interesting! are there any tutorials or guides?

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We appreciate the positive comments!

Basic documentation and a few tutorials will be available for the initial alpha. We’ll provide thorough documentation for the official release.

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Perfect! We were stoked when Unreal announced Python scripting, but not everyone knows how to set up the scripts or can keep up with new features. Our goal is to bring the power of Python to the masses, with easy setup and repeatable configurations.

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Any news on that? I signed up and can’t wait to test this out.

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Hey TFandrich, more alpha invites will be rolling out very soon. So keep an eye out for an alpha email!

Here are some of the new features you can expect:

  • Unreal Engine 4.21 support
  • The new Jacketing and Defeaturing options for 4.21
  • CAD file support
  • Saving & loading rules
  • Rule toggling
  • Lightmap resolution assignments
  • A temporary lighting fix for those pesky super bright lights
  • And more =)
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Can you sub out materials and replace with UE or substance materials?

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While not available currently, this is a priority feature for us. It’s such a common piece of everyone’s workflow. You would also be able to sub out placeholder meshes with existing UE meshes.

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Can you ballpark a time for us? 1/3/6/12 month(s)

15

good morning, I have not yet received an invitation to enter the beta.
Did I do something wrong or do I still have to wait?

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Hi Daniele,
Thanks for your interest and patience. In this stage of Optim’s testing, not everyone is guaranteed a seat. We do hope to keep expanding our alpha group to include as many people as possible in the coming month.

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Happy New Year everyone!

There’s good news for those interested in the alpha. Over the next few weeks, we will be inviting more users, so stay tuned. For those already in the alpha, thank you for all of the feedback so far!

We at Theia have been extremely busy over the past few months making Optim even more amazing! The Optim API and GUI have been streamlined. What this means is that feature implementation, updates, and hotfixes will happen much more quickly. In addition to that, it has introduced a massive speed increase across the board. Along with what Optim already sported, we’ve incorporated some new and exciting features for users to leverage. Lastly, we’ve made sure to keep user feedback in mind as we redesigned the application workflow and set our internal roadmap.

If anyone has any features they would love to see included into Optim, feel free to suggest them. We’ll check it out!

New features:

  • Redesigned UI

  • More user friendly

  • First steps to multi-threading taken

  • Added support links

  • Unreal Engine 4.21 Support

  • CAD File Support

  • CATIA, Sketchup, Solidworks tested

  • More CAD options will be available soon

  • Updated Geometry Options

  • Jacketing & Defeaturing (4.21+)

  • Lightmap Resolution Assignments

  • LOD Improvements

  • Merging/Grouping Improvements

  • Updated Rule Options

  • Saving and loading implemented

  • Rule toggle implemented

  • Bright light fix

Coming soon:

  • Material reassignment
  • Geometry instancing redesign
  • Better (and more) graphs and statistics
  • Dynamic sidebar
  • Settings page
  • Level and lighting options

Screenshots:

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Thanks blackisyto!

Yes, it’s a Python based plugin that is accessed and functions inside of Unreal Engine.

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The open beta is now available for Optim. For more information, head over to theia.io/optim.

Overview
Since our last update, we’ve introduced some pretty exciting features. More geometry filters, material previews and reassignment, light intensity options, level configuration, and a whole lot more. You can check out our release notes for more information.

Every week Optim is improving. New features implemented, bugs squashed, stability improvements put into place, and more. We couldn’t have come this far without our Alpha testers who have provided invaluable feedback. Now, we are looking for more feedback during the open beta stage. Sign up, download, and take Optim for a test drive. If anyone has any feature requests and/or feedback, feel free to post here, or send us a ticket at on our Feedback & Support page.

Datasmith/CAD Support:

Datasmith is fully supported, and we are improving our CAD support each week.

New Feature Highlights:

Geometry

  • Updated rule cards

  • New filters

  • Name

  • Size

  • Triangle Count

  • Metadata

  • Materials

  • New Filter comparators

  • Contains

  • Doesn’t contain

  • Starts with

  • Doesn’t start with

  • Ends with

  • Doesn’t end with

  • Regex (Regular Expression Syntax)

Material:

  • Material previews
  • Ability to reassign imported materials to Unreal content browser materials
  • Information page

Lighting:

  • Preview cards now available

  • Normalize, reset and adjust light intensities

  • 100% similar lights grouped into a single card

  • This allows bulk light editing

Coming soon:

  • More CAD support
  • Data-visualization overhaul
  • GUI performance upgrade
  • Geometry replacement
  • Multi-selection for Material reassignment
  • Post-import light management
  • Re-import support
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I installed version 0.24.6 of optim on unreal 4.21.2 and opened a project in a unreal studio.
The plug-in seems to be up and running, I attach the screen’s stamp, but if I click on the icon it does nothing.
Did I do something wrong? should you start right?