Dolby releases native Vision and Atmos plug-ins for Unreal Engine

“With the native integration of Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos into Unreal Engine, it is becoming even easier for developers to delight players with astonishing visuals and immersive sound,” said Mahesh Balakrishnan, vice president of consumer entertainment at Dolby Laboratories, in a statement. “The new plug-ins represent a remarkable milestone in our journey to empower developers with new innovative tools, helping them deliver awe-inspiring games that will captivate players like never before.”

Dolby Vision plug-in

Dolby Vision empowers developers to build more intense and engaging gaming experiences. Players are pulled into the action through better picture quality with better brightness, wider contrast, more vivid colors, and crisper detail. Dolby Vision can deliver highlights up to 40 times brighter and blacks that are 10 times darker than a standard picture — as well as better colors.

The benefits include being able to rade once in Dolby Vision to derive all legacy video outputs like HDR10 and SDR, which can save time and resources by eliminating the need to create individual deliverables for each consumer endpoint or platform.

It also has graphics processing unit (GPU) frametime costs of less than 0.2 milliseconds. It removes the need for calibration screens when the game is connected to a Dolby Vision display. And it introduces the ability to use trims to dial in the look of SDR deliverables to ensure picture quality consistently looks great and is as intended by the developer across a variety of displays, even non-HDR devices.

All Dolby Vision features can be updated via blueprints or timelines dynamically on each frame, providing more flexibility to developers. The Dolby Vision plug-in supports the development of games designed for
Windows 10/11 and Xbox Series X|S.

Dolby Atmos plug-in

Dolby Atmos is a pioneering immersive audio experience that enables developers to use audio in new ways to heighten the experience of players. With rich, multi-dimensional Dolby Atmos sound, players can now pinpoint the position and movement of teammates and enemies — allowing them to catch subtle, potentially game-changing sounds.

Benefits include letting game developers rely on native Unreal Engine support for the first time without a custom integration. And it gives them the ability to develop Dolby Atmos mixes for their games.

It enables cross-platform support saves time and resources by eliminating the need for multiple audio projects for all consumer endpoints through a single Dolby Atmos mix that is dynamically optimized for all compatible platforms.

And its new mixing capabilities add a new dimension to Dolby Atmos games enjoyed over headphones on Xbox and PC. Players sneaking through rafters can now locate the position of their opponents below, potentially giving them an edge during gameplay.

The Dolby Atmos plug-in supports the development of games designed for Android, Windows 10/11, and Xbox One or newer.