Epic MegaGrant - Unreal engine Crowd simulation plugin

We are excited to announce that we have received the Epic MegaGrant from Epic Games, which will be used to support the development of a high-performance crowd simulation plugin for Unreal Engine.

This plugin integrates our interactive uCrowds engine within Unreal Engine 5 to facilitate an efficient and realistic simulation and visualisation of large crowds of NPCs on a consumer computer, using their Niagara GPU particle system and custom offline-baked models with vertex animations. Users can effortlessly set up a crowd by using Unreal’s Blueprint Visual Scripting system.

Our crowd simulation plugin will aid developers in creating larger and more dynamic virtual worlds with ease. We believe this technology will have a wide range of applications in the gaming, film, architecture, automotive, manufacturing, and simulation industries.

As an example in the context of the MegaGrant, we have utilised the plugin in conjunction with Amazon Web Services (AWS) SimSpace Weaver to create an interactive digital twin of a city, featuring cloud-based simulations of persistent, interactive NPCs in a realistic photogrammetry environment. This was visualised and animated on a UE5 client with the capability of displaying one million NPCs in real-time at 60Hz, see https://www.linkedin.com/posts/ucrowds_interactive-digital-twin-of-a-city-with-1-activity-7003509669742747649-YAJZ/.

To scale the simulations, SimSpace Weaver partitions the environment into cells, with each cell managing its own simulation and communication with adjacent cells. The Cesium plugin for UE5 was utilized to stream high-quality photogrammetry data. The integration and convergence of these cutting-edge technologies through Unreal Engine is propelling the aforementioned industries forward.

We are grateful for the support of Epic Games, as our Epic MegaGrant will empower us to continue developing accessible and state-of-the-art technology solutions.

Special thanks to Sébastien Lozé, Alban Bergeret, and Nick Giannias for their support in making this happen.

Please contact us if you want to be the first to try out the plugin.

Are you interested in what our engine can do, or are you keen to integrate our technology into your in-house engine today? Please visit our website https://ucrowds.com or contact us at contact@ucrowds.com.

#epicgames #epicmegagrants #unrealengine #UE5 #crowdsimulation

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