Unity has acquired Irish art software company Artomatix for an undisclosed fee. Based in Dublin, Artomatix is a leading AI-driven 3D content creation platform that uses neural networks to streamline artistic workflows.
It's best known for building the 3D content creation platform ArtEngine, which features scan-based and example-based material creation workflows, and has partnered with a number of notable video game companies including Activision, Warducks, Keywords, and Unity.
Commenting on the move, Unity's chief product officer Brett Bibby said the deal will help anyone interested in creating high fidelity visualizations, and suggested it will prove particularly beneficial to those developers working on content for the next generation of consoles.
"ArtEngine helps game studios deliver realistic content for the next generation of consoles; enables VFX studios to deliver better visuals for films; and can achieve equally impressive results for creatives working in other industries," he commented.
"It removes the burden of minutiae material creation work -- such as photoconversion to PBR materials, up-resing, deblur, seam removal, unwarping, color matching, and much more -- helping artists focus on value-adding parts of the creative workflow."
Moving forward, Artomatix will continue operating out of Dublin and will look to expand its team "exponentially" over the next two years.