LogInEpic Games' John van der Burg shared a look at the upcoming updated version of UE5's ML Deformer.
Principal Animation Engineer at Epic Games John van der Burg recently shared an in-depth look at the updated ML Deformer, UE5's Machine Learning-powered feature that can approximate any complex deformation model to create accurate non-linear deformer systems, set to be upgraded and further improved with the upcoming Unreal Engine 5.1.
According to a lengthy post shared by the developer, the team built a framework for UE5.1 that allows one to build custom ML mesh deformation models. With this framework, you will have an editor to train, inspect, and test your deformation on a given character. Additionally, it also gives ML Deformer asset type and ML Deformer component to have a unified user experience.
Moreover, the UE5.1 version of ML Deformer will include a newly-developed model called Neural Morph Model, which promises to be "relatively lightweight in both memory usage and performance", "good for body deformations", and capable of "[handling] certain types of clothing."
"The ML Deformer for the model [see video above] uses around 1 megabyte of memory on the GPU and it evaluates on the latest consoles below 100 microseconds per character on the CPU and below 50 microseconds on the GPU. We hope to still reduce the CPU time significantly," comments the engineer. "The video shows the difference between a character that is linear skinned (including helper bones), and with ML Deformer enabled. The goal of this feature is to bring VFX quality deformation to real-time."
You can find John van der Burg's original post here and learn more about Unreal's ML Deformer over here. Also, don't forget to join our Reddit page and our Telegram channel, follow us on Instagram and Twitter, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.