Zibra AI, a Ukrainian deep-tech company that develops AI products for creative industries and is a part of Roosh investment group, announces the launch of ZibraVDB, the latest tool for Unreal Engine and Houdini.

The company explains that this solution allows to achieve cinematic quality of visual effects (volumetric VFX) in real time, using GPU compression to work with volumetric VDB effects.

ZibraVDB allows you to render volumetric VFX in OpenVDB format directly into Unreal Engine with up to 100x compression and twice the speed of Unreal’s SVT. This allows you to use “heavy” volumetric effects that were previously impractical for real-time rendering.

“Usually, compression significantly reduces the quality of effects, so you have to find a compromise between quality and file size. ZibraVDB solves this problem by providing a high level of compression with minimal visual loss. This allows the use of large OpenVDB effects in real time, which significantly saves resources and reduces processing time,” Zibra AI noted.

It added that the plugin is suitable for both small studios and large companies working in the fields of virtual production and CGI based on Unreal Engine. It simplifies the content creation process by optimizing workflows and increasing the ability to render complex visual effects.

“Thanks to ZibraVDB, developers can compress huge VFX – up to 100 times – without increasing the size of the build. This allows them to render volumetric effects in game engines in real-time, reuse effects for different scenes, optimize memory consumption, and change the look of the effect using shaders in different parts of the project,” the Ukrainian company said.

Perevagi ZibraVDB for Virtual Production and CGI

Traditional approaches to real-time rendering of volumetric effects are challenging for virtual production and CGI. ZibraVDB solves key technical challenges in these areas:

  • ZibraVDB compression combined with a custom volume rendering component allows you to speed up the process by half and visualize volumetric effects on a previously unseen scale.
  • ZibraVDB integrates seamlessly with popular software ecosystems such as Unreal Engine and Houdini.
  • Based on ZibraVDB, you can develop customized solutions to solve specific problems and create special functions for any individual project.
  • ZibraVDB provides highly customizable performance and visualization quality, allowing you to scale to meet your project needs. This adaptability ensures that ZibraVDB can handle a variety of production scenarios, and its ease of use saves time.