RealityCapture gets new ‘pay-per-input’ pricing
Capturing Reality has made RealityCapture, its well-regarded photogrammetry system, available under a ‘pay-per-input’ model as well as via perpetual licences or subscriptions.
The new payment model, rolled out in RealityCapture 1.0.3.9303, lets users download the software and use it offline for free, instead paying to export the final models.
A powerful photogrammetry and laser scan data processing system for games and VFX work
First released commercially in 2016, RealityCapture is a GPU-accelerated photogrammetry and laser scan data processing system.
The software has become part of many game art and VFX workflows – SideFX has its own plugin making it possible to use it from within Houdini – although its cost has been an obstacle to freelancers.
The cheapest perpetual licence for the software, the PGM edition, which lacks the laser scan features and supports a maximum of 3,500 source images, normally costs €4,000 (around $4,400).
The full Enterprise edition costs €15,000 (around $16,500).
While Capturing Reality also offers subscription options, at €249/month and upwards, the cost is still significant if you only need the software to generate a few assets.
New pay-per-input model makes RealityCapture available for a minimum payment of just over $20
The new PPI model makes RealityCapture available on a per-asset basis, making it possible to download and use the software offline for free.
Instead, users pay to export their final model, with prices varying according to the number and resolution of source images, or the number of laser survey points processed.
At the time of posting, the minimum payment of €19.90 (around $22), buys you 2,000 export credits, which translates to 400 x 20MP images or a total of 333 million scan points.
Other new features in RealityCapture 1.0.3.9303 include support for 16-bit and HDR source images and a new wizard system for processing aerial drone data. You can see a full list in the online changelog.
Pricing and system requirements
RealityCapture 1.0.3.9303 is available for Windows 7+ and Windows Server 2008+. It’s CUDA-based, so you will need a suitable Nvidia GPU.
Pricing is as discussed in the story above. You can find a comparison table of the different options here.
Read more about the new pay-per-input pricing model on the RealityCapture website