Epic Games Teams Up with Autodesk

Epic Games and Autodesk have announced a strategic collaboration to accelerate immersive real-time 3D experiences across industries, with an initial focus on architecture, engineering and construction (AEC).

Epic Games’ strategic collaboration with Autodesk aims to make immersive environments and collaborative workflows easily accessible to designers, engineers, and construction professionals, according to the companies. 

The first integrated offering will be Epic Games’ Twinmotion for Autodesk Revit, helping designers bring their projects to life, the companies note. As Revit is used to design, document and deliver building and infrastructure projects, Twinmotion complements the process by keeping pace with real-time rendering of design and build efforts. Autodesk intends to make Twinmotion for Revit available to all Revit customers as part of an upcoming release.

“The integration between Autodesk Revit and Twinmotion promises to deliver a truly seamless, real-time 3D experience for design professionals,” says Marc Petit, Epic Games’ vice president, Unreal Engine Ecosystem. “We share a common goal with Autodesk, giving customers more time to be innovative. By tapping into Epic’s ecosystem of real-time 3D tools and libraries, users can spend more time bringing their designs to life and less time handling complex data and technical workflows.”

“We know our customers are looking for more visualization and collaboration experiences through extended reality,” says Autodesk EVP of AEC Design, Amy Bunszel. “In immersive environments, designers can communicate to their project teams and clients with unparalleled realism how projects will look and feel upon completion for better decision-making and outcomes.”

Epic and Autodesk have been teaming up since 2008 when Autodesk joined Epic Games’ Integrated Partners Program, enabling integration of Autodesk 3D design software with Epic’s Unreal Engine. In addition to Revit, Epic’s Datasmith technology supports 3ds Max, Navisworks and Inventor workflows to simplify bringing projects into Unreal Engine. In 2021, Epic and Autodesk collaborated to offer a new Unreal Live Link for Maya plugin, enabling media and entertainment (M&E) creators to stream data from Maya to Unreal in real time.

Looking ahead, the companies say they aim to develop experiences for customers beyond AEC industries, including M&E and manufacturing. As members of the Metaverse Standards Forum, Epic Games and Autodesk are also driving open standards that enhance portability and integration, and equip customers with immersive and collaborative technology.

For more information, visit the Unreal Engine blog or view the video here.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.

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