Unlocking Journalistic Scene with Unreal Engine

Role: Creative Technologist, 3D Artist

Features: 3D Scanning, Photogrammetry, Unreal Engine

Date: 2021

Links: The New York Times R&D

At The New York Times R&D, we're always looking for new and innovative ways to tell stories. One of the ways we do that is through our use of cutting-edge technology, like 3D storytelling in the Game Engine, which allows us to transport readers right into the heart of the action.

We've already started exploring Unreal Engine prior to the release of Nanites, building internal prototypes to experiment with visual effects, like adding real-time raytracing for lighting procedural simulations for trees and volumetric clouds, batch processing large scanned data sets from photos to PBR materials and adding first-person navigation and annotated story points to test how readers might navigate nonfiction environments in the future.

With its power and flexibility, we can push beyond the limits of the web and give readers even larger and more detailed models of the environments we're exploring. Our ultimate goal is to create new, exciting ways to tell nonfiction stories and help our readers experience history as it unfolds.