Unity Technologies cuts price of ArtEngine by 80%

Unity Technologies cuts price of ArtEngine by 80%

Unity Technologies announced they decided to decrease the price of ArtEngine, the team’s AI-based material-processing software, by 80%.

A standard subscription, previously priced at $1,140/year, is now available for $228/year, and a new Pro edition with offline and batching functionality has been introduced at its original price point.

In addition, recent updates to ArtEngine have added a live link to the Unity Editor,  direct export of materials as Unity asset packages, plus an experimental new project template system. The toolkit is also available to users of other game engines, but ArtEngine is deeply integrated with Unity which makes it a perfect match.

An AI-based toolset to automate common material processing tasks for game dev work

Originally developed by Artomatix as an online solution, and acquired by Unity last year, ArtEngine automates common image-processing tasks for game development.

Key tools include Upres, which increases the resolution of textures or rendered images – for example, assets created for previous-gen games – automatically filling in missing details.

There are also a range of artefact-removal tools, including fixes for JPEG compression and seams, image unwarping, and a Photoshop-style Content-Aware Fill system.

The software can also ‘mutate’ properties of textures, creating instant variants, transfer colour schemes between images to speed up look dev work, and generate PBR materials from single source images.

The software is available to users of other game engines, although it is directly integrated with Unity Technologies’ own Unity engine, and users need a Unity ID to install it.

New features: live link and direct material export to the Unreal Editor

In addition, ArtEngine 2021.10, the latest update to the software, adds the option to export processed materials to the Unity Editor as Unity asset packages, without the need to install a separate plugin.

Developers can also use batch processing in ArtEngine Pro to quickly convert an entire library of materials into asset packages in Unity “in a matter of minutes”.

Learn more about the latest release here：

https://blog.unity.com/technology/new-templated-and-faster-than-ever-unity-material-workflows-in-artengine-202110