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Epic Games has acquired the creator of the photogrammetry asset library Megascans, Quixel, for an unknown sum.
Founded in 2011, Sweden-based Quixel employs over 100 people across six countries worldwide. As well as Megascans, Quixel’s products are supported by companion applications Bridge and Mixer (not to be confused with Microsoft’s streaming service of the same name). All of Quixel’s 100+ employees will now join the Epic team.
The acquisition sees all of Megascans 10,000+ assets become free for Unreal Engine users, whilst the toolsets Bridge and Mixer become free for all.
“Building photorealistic 3D content is an expensive endeavour in game development and film production. By coming together with Quixel to make Megascans free for all use in Unreal Engine, this level of artistry is now available to everyone from triple-A studios to indies,” said Epic Games founder and CEO, Tim Sweeney.
“Our mission at Quixel has always been to make the world more accessible for everyone through ultra-high resolution scanning. As part of Epic Games, we’re now able to accelerate this vision as we grow the Megascans library, speed up the development of Bridge and Mixer, and improve integrations with all major 3D software and renderers,” added Quixel co-founder Teddy Bergsman.
Epic has also announced “significant Unreal Engine developments” coming in version 4.24 that will “streamline functionality for creators across industries”. This includes key Unreal Studio tools such as Datasmith becoming available for all in the main Engine, a new hair and fur system, and more. Epic is also extending the free download period for Twinmotion to Q1 2020.
Epic acquired real-time 3D architectural software, Twinmotion, back in May. Twinmotion – which helps bring architecture, construction, urban planning, or landscaping projects to life via “high-quality real-time visualisation” – had previously been owned by Abvent. Following the acquisition, the software has had “a small number of features […] removed or changed”, but from now until the end of Q1 2020, it’s available for free for all UE customers, and “yours to keep using indefinitely after that”.
