Epic’s new tech could theoretically put your facial expressions in Fortnite

The constant update has turned Fortnite From an early access fort-building game to a popular social space to hang out with friends, but despite this constant iteration, expression has always been limited to the emotes Epic sets in-game. , Epic just bought a company called Hyprsense that can put your facial expressions directly on a video game character using a simple webcam, which seems like a great choice for Fortnite.

For a taste of what that might look like, look no further than this promotion for Hyprsense’s own app:

Hyprmeet was released in open beta in September and while the app is no longer available, it’s easy to imagine how enjoyable the expressiveness of the face could be, even a little bit more. FortniteParty Royale at a slower and non-violent pace.

Party Royale has hosted several social experiences since its launch, including concerts, trailer previews, and race talks in America. Fortnite in platform as much as a game. Despite the potential, today’s acquisition did not include any plans to implement the new technology into the game, and comments from Epic CTO Kim Libreri actually suggest that this purchase may concern creators first. “Calling on the Hyprsense team allows us to […] get closer to the goal of giving all creators full control over the expression of their vision in every nuance, ”says Libreri.

Epic has previously explored inexpensive forms of motion capture for Unreal Engine, including using an iPhone’s TrueDepth camera to create a depth map of a face, but being able to use a webcam you already own, as Hyprsense software allows, could make facial motion capture accessible. for even more developers. With Hyprsense employees joining Epic’s active game development and ‘digital humans’ teams, we can’t say for sure where this motion capture tech will appear first, but what is clear, It’s that expressiveness – be it player characters or NPCs – seems important to Epic’s increasingly social future.