Hairworks is no longer supported by the newer UE4 releases. The HairWorks toolset consists of DCC tool integration and real-time rendering and simulation for hair. Some 5 years ago, NVIDIA had provided a hair solution called HairWorks. By rendering each individual hair, artists can massively improve the visual fidelity of real-time simulated hair. Using the new Hair Rendering and Simulation features in UE4.24, there is now the ability to render each individual strand of hair. In a card-based workflow, a small number of large flat sheets are used to give the approximate shape and motion of a much larger number of individual hairs.

Traditionally hair in real-time has been created using card-based rendering or other approximations. While Charles de Rousiers has been quite modest about this leap in real-time performance, after examining the new system, we agree with Morand’s statement that what, “Charles and the team have implemented is pretty spectacular.” The Groom uses full geometry in the new system As an experienced artist, she has been impressed at how quickly the new system has been developed and how much this experimental early release can do.

We sat down also with Gaelle Morand, who is a Senior Technical Artist at Epic Games and formerly a Grooming Supervisor doing Look Development & Lighting at Industrial Light & Magic for 5 years in San Francisco.

Ornatrix dynamics tutorial