Unity Acquires Interactive Data Visualization, Inc. (IDV), Creators of SpeedTree® Environment Creation Suite
July 22 2021 - 12:00PM
Business Wire
Leading vegetation modeling and environment
creation products bolster Unity’s authoring workflow, enabling
creators to bring rich environments to life quickly and
efficiently
Unity (NYSE: U), the world’s leading platform for creating and
operating real-time 3D (RT3D) content, today announced the
acquisition of Interactive Data Visualization, Inc. (IDV), creator
of SpeedTree®, a suite of vegetation modeling and environment
creation products for architecture, games, visual effects, and
real-time simulations. As a long-time partner to Unity, this
acquisition of IDV enables a deeper integration of SpeedTree into
the Unity ecosystem, which will significantly enhance artists
authoring workflows and environment creation capabilities, and
solves a critical pain point for Unity creators across industries:
the ability to bring rich environments to life quickly and
efficiently.
“Creating natural, organic-looking environments is currently a
costly and labor-intensive process. If you’re pursuing a high level
of detail and realism, the process of manually creating one tree -
not to mention a forest - can take upwards of four months,” said
Ralph Hauwert, Senior Vice President, Research & Development,
Unity. “With IDV’s SpeedTree suite of products part of the Unity
product ecosystem, we can now offer creators native authoring
workflows for creating real-time, rich, organic environments.”
SpeedTree software is currently the leading foliage solution for
the games industry. Recent hits such as Horizon: Zero Dawn, Call of
Duty: War Zone, The Witcher 3, Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla, Hitman
III, and Ghost of Tsushima have all used SpeedTree to assist in
their environment creation.
SpeedTree software is also a leading solution for visual
effects, and has previously received a Scientific and Technical
Academy Award® from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
for its contributions to modern cinema and an Engineering Emmy
Award for its impact on the television industry. SpeedTree foliage
solutions can be spotted in hundreds of major films, from indie
projects to the highest-grossing films of 2020.
“We grew SpeedTree into an industry-standard tool by working
directly with artists and developers across industries. This
allowed SpeedTree to adapt to and anticipate the challenges faced
by artists creating larger and higher fidelity worlds in real-time
and VFX applications,” said Chris King, Co-Founder, Interactive
Data Visualization, Inc. “We’re excited to join with Unity as we
continue to work directly with creators at every level, expanding
our existing solutions and developing new technologies as we move
forward into the next phase of real-time interactive content.”
Today, SpeedTree and Unity customers can continue using both
services as usual, including the existing SpeedTree and Unity
integration. Like many of Unity’s products, including Vivox and
Multiplay, SpeedTree’s tools and expansive library of ready-to-use
content is engine agnostic, ensuring it continues to reach creators
in any development environment. Unity will retain all ten SpeedTree
employees.
Future benefits include a deeper integration within the Unity
ecosystem and better workflows between the two companies. This
process has begun with Unity’s upcoming 2021.2 release, which
highlights better integration of SpeedTree-generated assets with
Unity’s Scriptable Render Pipelines and Terrain system.
The transaction closed on July 14, 2021. Financial and legal
terms of the deal will not be disclosed.
About Unity
Unity (NYSE: U) is the world’s leading platform for creating and
operating real-time 3D (RT3D) content. Creators, ranging from game
developers to artists, architects, automotive designers,
filmmakers, and others, use Unity to make their imaginations come
to life. Unity’s platform provides a comprehensive set of software
solutions to create, run and monetize interactive, real-time 2D and
3D content for mobile phones, tablets, PCs, consoles, and augmented
and virtual reality devices. The company’s 1,800+ person research
and development team keeps Unity at the forefront of development by
working alongside partners to ensure optimized support for the
latest releases and platforms. Apps developed by Unity creators
were downloaded more than five billion times per month in 2020. For
more information, please visit www.unity.com.
About Interactive Data Visualization, Inc.
Interactive Data Visualization, Inc. (IDV), is the creator of
SpeedTree® a suite of vegetation modeling and environment creation
products for architecture, games, visual effects, and real-time
simulations.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements that
involve risks and uncertainties, including statements regarding
Unity’s ability to increase Unity’s artist authoring workflow and
environment creation capabilities, the impact of the transaction on
Unity’s and Interactive Data Visualizations products and services
capabilities, and customers. The words “will,” “allows,” “can,”
“enable,” “objective” and similar expressions are intended to
identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking
statements are subject to risks, uncertainties, and assumptions,
such as Unity’s ability to successfully integrate Interactive Data
Visualization’s technology and business, including its SpeedTree®
software; costs related to the acquisition; whether potential
benefits of the transaction extend to Unity and Interactive Data
Visualization customers; Unity’s and Interactive Data
Visualization’s success developing new products or modifying
existing products and the degree to which these gain market
acceptance; and any unanticipated impact of accounting for the
acquisition. If the risks materialize or assumptions prove
incorrect, actual results could differ materially from the results
implied by these forward-looking statements. Further information on
these and additional risks that could affect Unity’s results is
included in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission
(“SEC”), including our Form 10-Q filed with the SEC on May 12,
2021, and our future reports that we may file with the SEC from
time to time, which could cause actual results to vary from
expectations. Unity assumes no obligation to, and does not
currently intend to, update any such forward-looking statements
after the date of this release.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210722005371/en/
Alivia Rasmussen Unity Communications alivia@unity3d.com +1
(650) 218-1185
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