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Show HN: I built an all-in-one virtual production platform for indies (sceneforge.app)

15 points by MidnightCoffee ↗ HN
After being frustrated with the budget and learning curve requirements of the big names in the Virtual Production field, I decided to create my own all-in-one platform designed with beginners and less-technical folk in mind. It takes complicated tasks in other engines (tracking, compositing, floor plans, etc.) and makes them two-click solutions. And, with the free companion mobile app, you can track cameras, scan your sets, and (coming soon) do full body motion capture!

There's a ton more features that I'm super proud of, and I'm open to any and all feedback! Thanks!

15 comments

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Geonode
What 3D engine is this built on?

Does it interact with Unreal and other established software?

Why do you specifically recommend a RTX1050 GPU?

MidnightCoffee
It's built on top of Unity, with a lot of additional rendering magic on top of it.

Content can be imported in and out of SceneForge to/from basically any other 3D engine, including Unreal (a specific UE workflow video is available on the youtube channel).

The GTX 1050 is kinda a general "it will run very well" requirement, but from my testing it runs fine on most laptops with a dedicated GPU (and even some integrated ones!). Performance all depends on what you put in your scene. It also runs great on MacOS with Apple Silicon.

Hope that answers your questions!

Geonode
Sounds good. Does it support real time filming with LED walls and volumes? If so I'm very interested to dig into this when I'm back at my desk.
MidnightCoffee
It absolutely does, albeit on a more basic level. Because the target audience is people without that hardware, more focus was put into Green-screen style compositing.

That being said, you can add "In-Camera VFX" rigs to your scene and that should get you started with a single display.

You can take a look at the demo video here. The functionality has since been made available. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klXmX8KRUsM (Hope I'm allowed to post links!)

Geonode
Cool, I'll check it out. There's a huge opportunity in virtual Production for software to automate a lot of the janky methodology we're using right now to put all the pieces together.
MidnightCoffee
That's exactly the goal! The challenge is that SF is meant to be a standalone solution, rather than a way to "fix" the existing methods.

In the future I hope to make it more modular so you can have the ease of SF, plus the graphical power of Unreal, for example.

goertzen
Great work! Are you selling it at some point ?

Any way for people to extend it ?

MidnightCoffee
Thanks! It's available now on the site! There's a free version, but you can use code EARLYACCESS20 for 20% off any plan.

A basic macro language is in the works for quickly prototyping animations and things, but more advanced "modding" support is definitely being looked into.

aiddun
This is sick! A few weeks back I made a very, very crude unreal engine AR-camera client to record mixed reality marketing footage for a VR game on a mobile iPad. It was a pain in the butt, I had to rebuild the whole app on every map change and had like no features. It was disheartening to realize that while the tech was there, it seemed like no tools really existed to easily do this (easily and affordably) for small filmmakers. Super happy to see the barrier is being significantly lowered!
MidnightCoffee
Thanks for the kind words! Lowering the barrier to entry is absolutely the goal :)
high_byte
does not load for me
MidnightCoffee
The website or the app itself? If you don't mind emailing support@sceneforge.app we can figure it out there. Thanks!
goertzen
The signup flow seems to have a bug. If I refresh the page it works, but until then it hangs on the spinner.
MidnightCoffee
Thank you for letting me know! I'm looking into it now. In the meantime, I'm glad you're able to get in by refreshing the page. If you are interested in an upgraded plan, you can use code EARLYACCESS20 for 20% off any plan!
MidnightCoffee
As another user pointed out, if you refresh the page after signing up, that should let you into the Dashboard page. I'm looking into the bug now. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to email Support@SceneForge.app, and I'll get back to you asap! Thanks!