Epic Games’ RealityScan app, which helps you to scan real-life objects and switch them into 3D fashions for video video games or different initiatives, is now formally available on iOS as a free obtain after an preliminary restricted beta launch in April. The app could possibly be a helpful software to recreate objects from the world round you with out having to construct them by yourself from scratch.

To “scan” an object within the app, you’re taking a bunch of images of it from as many angles as you’ll be able to. As you’re strolling across the object and photographing it, RealityScan helpfully reveals every image you’ve taken in augmented actuality, in addition to a warmth map of the place the item wants extra protection. You’ll additionally be capable of preview your scan proper from the app to see the way it appears to be like earlier than exporting it to Sketchfab, a platform for sharing 3D fashions. (Epic says everybody who uploads a scan from RealityScan to Sketchfab will get a free 12 months of Sketchfab Pro.) From Sketchfab, you’ll be able to deliver the mannequin to apps like Epic’s personal Unreal Engine.

I’ve messed round with the restricted beta and the ultimate app, and it’s fairly simple to make use of. My scans haven’t turned out nice, however I wouldn’t put a lot inventory in that; I’m utilizing an iPhone 12 Mini, which doesn’t have the perfect digital camera, and I don’t assume the lighting is right in my home for these scans.

Right now, RealityScan is just accessible for iPhones and iPads, however Epic says an Android model is within the works for 2023.

The app is simply the most recent in Epic’s rising suite of instruments to help builders in creating 3D objects; the corporate’s spectacular MetaHuman expertise was not too long ago used to make a lifelike recreation of NBA famous person Luka Dončić, for instance. Epic stated in November that greater than half of all introduced next-gen video games are made on Unreal Engine, and issues like RealityScan and the MetaHuman Creator might assist these builders as they’re constructing new video games.