Realistic Renders in a Flash: Capture production-ready assets with Consumer Hardware

Need for accessible material capture

To truly democratize 3D capture, anyone should be able to capture high-quality assets with everyday cameras - this is M-XR’s mission, and you can do exactly that with M-XR’s new omni-capture method!

Omni-Capture removes the need for specialized hardware such as polarised lights & cross-polarisation filters that can require additional motors. In making the requirements for scanning more accessible, M-XR's technology can shrink large capture systems into something far more portable.

How it works

The capture process is very simple and can be done with just a camera and a flash. Start by photographing the subject from different angles as you would with conventional photogrammetry, and just turn on the flash. After data is processed through a photogrammetry application, it is ready for the M-XR’s material software.

M-XR’s material software will then automatically create texture maps for Diffuse, Specular, Roughness, Metallic & Normals - we can also output specific maps for different engines.The software can currently deliver 32bit EXR textures in 30 minutes to a couple of hours, depending on resolution.

Now you have a fully textured asset ready to use! Without any manual intervention.

More Results

For these tests, we teamed up with INVOLV3D who have built a robotic scanner, that automates the photogrammetry process. Their rig consists of 4 lights, but we were able to process the scans using just one light. The photogrammetry process used 67 images, and those were all the M-XR software needed.

These results are still a work-in-progress and we expect the quality to improve as developments continue.

What's Next?

As we continue with our developments, we are planning to move towards mobile capture as soon as possible, allowing anyone with a smartphone the ability to capture high-quality assets with proper materials. We aim to break this down into milestones, initially swatch scanning on a smartphone with the ability to create generative texture, before opening up to full 3D objects.