Epic bolsters Unreal Engine with Twinmotion acquisition

Epic has expanded its Unreal Engine toolkit with the undisclosed acquisition of real-time visualization solution Twinmotion. 

To mark the deal, Epic has announced its new version of Twinmotion will be absolutely free to download and use for all customers until November 2019. 

Anyone who downloads Twinmotion before the promotion ends will be allowed to keep using it forever without having to pay royalties, which is pretty good news for devs interested in using the tool. 

In case you aren't familiar with Twinmotion, the software allows 3D models to be tweaked in real time, and also lets creators add weather effects on the fly edit their projects in VR. 

Epic's updated version will also offer improved performance, enhanced direct synchronization with Revit and Archicad, and new global illumination glow effects. All users will also be able to access a shared library for multi-user collaboration, a feature that was previously only available in Twinmotion Team. 

"Twinmotion's highly intuitive interface enables you to assign PBR materials, set up lighting, and even choose the season and the weather with just a few clicks," reads a post on the Unreal Engine blog. 

"Populate your scene from a library of ready-to-use assets, including animated characters, and trees whose foliage blows in the wind. With as few as two clicks, you can create paths of walking people or moving cars, and then vary their appearance to suit your scene."

For more information on how the deal and subsequent changed might affect you, head on over to the Unreal Engine website to check out the full FAQ.