Hi there!
I’m creating this official thread documenting the development of UnfoldVR a project I’m leading, built with Unreal Engine 5 and Internet Computer Blockchain.
I’ve been working with Unreal Engine since the 4.0 version (thanks Epic for the subscription refund!) and it was instantly clear to me that this is the future of visualization. I’ve otherwise been involved with CGI since 2007 and seeing the instant feedback in the viewport made it crystal clear that traditional viz tools will soon become niche.
Now, 8 years later, it’s just as clear that Real-Time X Blockchain is the winning ingredient for a true Open, Inclusive and Interoperable Metaverse.
And with UnfoldVR we’re empowering Creators to build that Metaverse. We’re decentralizing asset creation for the Metaverse with easy to use Web and VR tools.
What exactly can you do, right now, on UnfoldVR both on the Web and the VR app?
Here’s a quick video showing all the features available. Keep in mind that all the data that goes in the VR app is on-chain data, including the 3D files from the NFTs!
It’s much easier to download the VR app now - all instructions are on the web app
The standalone VR app uses HTTP requests to communicate with the blockchain canister - we’ll be releasing a documentation on this in 1-2 months - reach out if you need some insights sooner!
Drawing tool is significantly improved using instanced static meshes - we’ll release a more detailed update on this soon
New Explore feature on the Web app allows users to find other profiles and their shared NFTs - we’ll use the same architecture for 3D drawings discovery
We’re launching a set of new tools around authoring 3D NFTs with UE5 soon.
Until then, here’s a video showing all the dynamics behind our Creator Gloves NFTs Generator:
We used UE5 throughout the asset production pipeline for this NFT collection. Modeling was done in Blender but then we created a BP with all the editable meshes and materials. We then set up a very flexible set of functions that allowed us to:
write .json files with the metadata of each combination - including a unique combination code
read .json files (individual and bulk) and then apply the combination to the BP components
iterate through .json options and take a screenshot render for each NFT - we rendered our 3,333 collection several times over incl. testing
iterate through .json options and export .GLB files with carefully selected compression options
just visually iterate through them to inspect for errors
All of the above allowed us to very quickly generate big volume of data in a very short and reliable amount of time. Not generating random NFT combinations at runtime, but doing it once and saving that into multiple .json files allowed us to properly debug and inspect our combinations.
Some of the main problems we ran into were around how .GLB files are generated from UE5 especially when it came to rigged components and components attached to skeleton sockets. The main challenge was finding out that some components looked good in-engine but were improperly exported as .GLB files.
However, with our configurator set up it was fairly straightforward to identify the issues and fix them.
If you’re working on something similar reach out and we can share more insights and best practices. You’ll find our NFT collection here: Yumi NFT Marketplace
