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Be the first to try ZibraAI tool, bringing groundbreaking OpenVDB format to game development.
Zibra VDB Compression is a newest ZibraAI solution, being developed to enable the use of VDB volumes in game engines in real-time, empowering game developers with lifelike CGI level visual effects. It allows you to:
● Significantly compress huge VFXs, stored in Open VDB format, up to 20 times, and add more high-quality volumetric VFX to the game without increasing its build size;
● Render volumetric effects in game engines in real-time, fitting into the industry performance requirements;
● Reuse a volumetric effect in multiple use cases, optimizing memory consumption. It is also possible to apply shaders to change the way the effect looks in different parts of the project.
Zibra VDB Compression test plugin for Unreal Engine 5 has reached an impressive frame rate of 120 fps when rendering on an RTX 3090.
Visuals showcased in this demonstration were produced using an RTX 3070 and rendered at approximately 30 fps.
This level of speed in rendering is primarily due to our innovative approach to working with compressed data, which efficiently stores all the essential information related to the original VDB volume in a highly optimized format.
High-quality volumetric effects, stored in OpenVDB format, are widely used in the movie industry. However, they are never applied in games in raw format due to their size and rendering limitations.
The only way for content creators to use such effects in games is to export them into flipbooks. These simple 2D textures imitate the look of a 3D effect but lack realism and visual quality. They are hard to reuse, as they are baked from one camera view and, on top of it, are non-interactive with the game environment.
Zibra VDB Compression technology eliminates the need to bake volumetric effects into 2D. You can compress any effect stored in OpenVDB format until you achieve the desired quality-size correlation and work with true 3D volumes directly. Zibra VDB Compression GPU accelerated tech also allows these effects to be quickly rendered on GPU and enables adding more realistic, CGI-level VFX to your project.
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Frequently asked questions
What is OpenVDB?
OpenVDB is a file format and a C++ library for manipulating, simulating, and rendering sparse dynamic volumes, developed by DreamWorks Animation for use in volumetric applications. OpenVDB is typically used in feature film production to create realistic volumetric images such as water/liquid simulations and environmental effects like clouds and ice. However, it is incompatible with GPUs and can not be applied in games due to the considerable size and computational effort required to render 3D volumes.
What about NanoVDB? Can’t I use it for my project?
NanoVDB is NVIDIA’s version of the OpenVDB library that provides a simplified representation, compatible with the core data structure of OpenVDB, with functionality to convert back-and-forth between the NanoVDB and the OpenVDB data structures and create and visualize the data.
This solution offers one significant advantage over OpenVDB, namely support for GPUs. It is applicable to both CPU and GPU-accelerated simulation and rendering of high-resolution sparse volumes.
Nevertheless, the NanoVDB structure does not significantly compress volume size. Therefore, it’s not so commonly applied in game development.
How can I use ZibraVDB Compression in the engine?
Our solution can be integrated into any game engine and allows you to easily add high-quality VFX to the project.
All you have to do is:
● Simulate VFX in Houdini, EmberGen or other solution
● Export volumetric effect in OpenVDB format
● Apply the ZibraAI plugin to achieve compression of visual effects directly in the game engine.
● Place VFX in the scene and polish its look with shaders.
● Use the ZibraAI plugin for real-time decompression and rendering of volumetric VFX in your project.
When will Zibra VDB Compression be ready?
Zibra VDB Compression is still in development, but we are working on shipping the full release as soon as possible. Join the waitlist and follow ZibraAI socials to receive regular updates about our product.
What tech is behind this?
Our plugin is powered by custom AI-based technology that provides high-quality lossy compression and ensures the best possible VFX quality-size ratio, with high PSNR and minimal visible difference between compressed and decompressed effects.
What are your metrics: Compression rate, PSNR, F1 Score, etc.?
We use several metrics to define the efficiency of our technology. The most important ones are compression rate, decompression time, and peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR).
Compression rate – metric that defines how many times the size of compressed 3D volume differs from the size of the original VFX.
Peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) – is a ratio between the maximum possible power of a signal and the power of corrupting noise that affects the fidelity of its representation.
F1 Score – metric that shows the quality of compressed representation in terms of replicating the same shape as the original VDB volume. Unlike the PSNR metric, it doesn’t account for channel values. The maximum value of F1 equals one and corresponds to the exact reproduction of the original VFX shape. Find the exact definition here.