Streaming to Unreal

Note: Feature is available in Basic and Pro editions only.

iPi Mocap Studio is capable of realtime streaming of character's pose over network. This can be used to preview captured motion in an actual game scene inside the Unreal editor and integrate reading animation stream from iPi Mocap Studio into your games or applications created with Unreal.

Usage in Mocap Studio

To start streaming, go to the Export tab and press Start Streaming button. While streaming is active any changes to a pose of the actor in Mocap Studio (playback, tracking, manual edit etc.) are sent to the local network. If there is a target character applied for an actor then the program streams poses of that target character otherwise it streams poses of the actor model. To stop streaming press Stop Streaming button on the Export tab. Streaming also stops automatically when a project is closed.

Note: Streaming of multiple actors is not currently supported. In multi-actor projects, it streams an active (currently selected) actor.

Streaming protocol broadcasts UDP packets to a certain port on the local network. By default, the port used is 31455. You can change this value in Streaming Settings dialog which opens when you press a "gear" icon on Start Streaming button.

Tip: You may need to adjust firewall settings to allow outgoing connections to this UDP port.

Usage in Unreal

To get data streamed by iPi Mocap Studio into Unreal Engine please follow instructions below.

1. Install iPi Mocap Live Link plugin:

1.1. Download iPi Mocap Live Link plugin via links below.

Download:
UE 5.1 - iPiMocap-Unreal-5-1.zip; UE 5.0 - iPiMocap-Unreal-5-0.zip;
UE 4.27 - iPiMocap-Unreal-4-27.zip; UE 4.26 - iPiMocap-Unreal-4-26.zip; UE 4.25 - iPiMocap-Unreal-4-25.zip; UE 4.24 - iPiMocap-Unreal-4-24.zip

1.2. Unpack downloaded archieve into Engine\Plugins folder of your Unreal Engine installation. The folder iPiSoft will be created with subfolder iPiMocapLiveLink that will contain the plugin binaries and source code.

2. You will then have to activate installed plugin in your project.

2.1. (Re)start the Unreal Editor.

2.2. Open Plugins window via Edit > Plugins menu. Select Animation category.

2.3. Enable iPi Mocap Live Link and Live Link plugins.

2.4. Restart the editor by pressing Restart Now button.

3. Installed plugin will provide iPi Mocap Live Link source you can use to get animation data from iPi Mocap Studio. You can further use standard Live Link features to apply animation data to your character.

Instuctions for quick test.

MetaHuman

We used MetaHumans project template.

• Start streaming in iPi Mocap Studio as expained above. You need to use MetaHuman rig.

• Open Live Link streaming manager tab in Unreal Editor via Window > Live Link menu item (Window > Virtual Production > Live Link in UE5).

• Connect to iPi Mocap Live Link source in Unreal Editor. iPi Mocap Live Link subject names Character should appear in subjects list.

Note: Don't forget to start animation playback or live tracking session inside iPi Mocap Studio. Otherwise nothing will be streamed and subject will not show.

• You can then use Live Link Pose blueprint to animate MetaHuman character. Feed in output of Live Link Pose into Control Rig component in m_med_nnw_animbp. You can find it in Content > SampleMetaHumans > metahuman_004 > Male > Medium > NormalWeight > Body folder for male character or Content > SampleMetaHumans > metahuman_001 > Female > Medium > NormalWeight > Body for female character.

Note: Don't forget to select Character Live Link subject to feed in animation data.

Note: You can use other Live Link capabilities as well. Live Link Pose blueprint was just selected just for expample.

UE4 Mannequin (Standard Unreal Character)

We used ThirdPerson project template.

• Start streaming in iPi Mocap Studio as expained above. You need to use UE4 Mannequin rig if you use standard Unreal character. You can import your own rig into iPi Mocap Studio and setup motion transfer profile if you use custom rig.

• Open Live Link streaming manager tab in Unreal Editor via Window > Live Link menu item (Window > Virtual Production > Live Link in UE5).

• Connect to iPi Mocap Live Link source in Unreal Editor. iPi Mocap Live Link subject names Character should appear in subjects list.

Note: Don't forget to start animation playback or live tracking session inside iPi Mocap Studio. Otherwise nothing will be streamed and subject will not show.

• You can then use Live Link Pose blueprint to animate your character.

Note: Don't forget to select Character Live Link subject to feed in animation data.

Note: You can use other Live Link capabilities as well. Live Link Pose blueprint was just selected just for expample.