The Open 3D Foundation has just announced that Epic Games will join its Premier Member program. This is a momentous occasion for the latter company as it will join other companies like Adobe, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Huawei, Intel, LightSpeed Studios, Microsoft, and Niantic in enabling artists and content creators around the globe to unleash their creativity and innovation.
As you’d expect, Epic Games’ Unreal Engine will now support Open 3D Engine. Unreal essentially meets the Open 3D Foundation’s goal of furthering interoperability and portability of assets, visuals, and media scripting, enabling artists and content creators around the globe to unleash their creativity and innovation by removing barriers in their choice of tools.
Subsequently, this move builds on Epic Games’ steadfast commitment to delivering choice to content producers to unleash their creativity. In addition to enabling them to move media seamlessly between development environments, the Open 3D Engine allows artists and developers to consume only what they need, with the ability to customize components based on their unique requirements.
Royal O’Brien, Executive Director of Open 3D Foundation and General Manager of Games and Digital Media at the Linux Foundation, stated the following in a press release:
We applaud Epic Games’ commitment to the open source community and welcome them into the Open 3D Foundation as our newest Premier member, underscoring our mission in championing the deep integration of open source with commercial solutions to accelerate growth in a sustainable, balanced ecosystem that fuels the flywheel of success and innovation.
It’s truly exciting to see how the industry is responding to the real-time 3D needs of content creators around the globe, providing them with best-of-breed tools.
The Open3D Foundation has also stated that this year marks the first anniversary of the Open 3D Engine. Since the Foundation’s public announcement in July 2021, over 25 member companies have joined. Other Premier members include Adobe, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Huawei, Intel, Microsoft, LightSpeed Studios, and Niantic.
What will the future hold for Epic Games and O3DF? Marc Petit, VP of Unreal Engine Ecosystem at Epic Games, believes this will actually benefit efforts in the metaverse. He said the following in a press release:
The metaverse will require companies to work together to advance open standards and open source tools, and we believe the Open 3D Foundation will play an important role in this journey.
With shared standards for interoperability, we’re giving creators more freedom and flexibility to build interactive 3D content using the tools they’re most comfortable with, and to bring those amazing experiences to life in Unreal Engine and across other 3D engines.
Speaking of which, Petit will also join the O3DF’s Governing Board. Today’s world has companies racing faster and faster towards 3D technologies. It’s essential to keep evolving to keep up with today’s market, and the recent partnership between O3DF and Epic will help in the creation of a AAA FOSS game engine.
