Argonauts XR
“You don’t need to learn Diversion, you just use it”
The team
Diego Hernández and two partners created a company called BIM2VR to work on Architectural Visualization projects that required 3D rendering services. But since then, and while architecture is still part of the business, they switched to the virtual production business creating Argonauts XR. They have customers in cinemas, TV and others.
There are also 3D artists on the team capable of creating worlds for video games, movies, architecture, and almost anything in between!
The projects
Argonauts XR started applying 3D modeling to architecture projects. When a project requires a high-fidelity render to be presented, Argonauts XR jumps in to make it happen.
But they soon discovered that being experts in Unreal Engine opened many other doors. They were already certified trainers (in fact they still train students in Unreal) and that skill made them the perfect fit for new kind of projects: cinema and TV in what is called virtual production.
Nowadays real-time 3D engines historically used for games, especially Unreal Engine, can be used to render the kind of content used in movies… in real-time! Instead of a render farm, nowadays many productions just shoot using an LED wall with the actors in front. This saves precious time and even more importantly, allows the director to make decisions while shooting that otherwise would happen in post-production. This has been an incredible revolution that was only made possible by pioneers applying game tech to the cinema.
Argonatus XR has participated in various projects ranging from short movies to TV shows, to make a podcast look like it was recorded in a Star Wars cargo ship.
Tools
Unreal Engine is the primary tool for Argonauts XR, and Diversion enters the scene to control all changes and more importantly, to distribute them among render machines when used in combination with Unreal SwitchBoard and Render.
Then it is the hardware: in almost every serious production you end up using professional-grade graphic cards, like the Quadro series from Nvidia. Our friends ask us why a normal graphics card is not enough, since they are so powerful for games: it is because consumer cards are not designed to run 24 hours non-stop, and then they have glitches. Even more importantly, to work in a professional environment with an LED wall or a Green Screen, you need a sync device and the graphics card (or cards), the camera, the camera tracking system, and the LED WALL or Green Screen they all need to be physically connected. Professional cards allow this.
Why did you switch from Perforce and Plastic SCM to Diversion?
The team used Plastic SCM for one of their architectural projects, and Perforce in some LED wall ones, but as soon as they discovered Diversion there was no way back: it is way much simpler to use. You don’t need to learn Diversion, you just use it.
What is better with Diversion?
There are a number of things to consider in their environment:
1. Diversion is perfectly integrated with Unreal Engine. The plugin is very smooth and this is key to use it on a daily basis.
2. When you work in virtual production projects and you need SwitchBoard, typically you would require a Perforce setup to distribute changes to the NDisplay nodes. This is costly both in terms of money and time.
Learning and setting up Perforce is a real hassle for the kind of profiles involved in a virtual production. But with Diversion everything changes, it is easy, it was designed in this decade, not 30 years ago, and it shows.
3. Making changes, and getting changes from other team members is such a joy. It is hard to explain with words, it just works.
