ZED Live Link integrations

The ZED Live Link plugins are made to delegate the ZED SDK computing to a dedicated machine while running a 3D Engine (Unreal Engine 5 or Unity) on another that will use the data sent by the machine running the SDK.

Difference with Unreal Engine 5 and Unity plugins #

The Unreal Engine 5 and Unity plugins are deep integrations of the ZED SDK in the engines. Using them, you can access almost any data and method from the ZED SDK and manipulate the ZED cameras.

The Live Link implementations, however, are just pipelines for the results of the Camera Positional Tracking and the Body Tracking. They are much lighter, but don’t come with control over the ZED SDK. However, they allow using the Fusion module, which is not available out-of-the-box with the dedicated engine plugins.

How does it work? #

The implementations differ for UE5 and Unity, but the core idea is the same. One machine receives the inputs from one or more ZED cameras and runs the Body Tracking. Its results are formatted to fit the requirements of the engine of your choice and sent to the corresponding Live Link plugin over the network.

The sending tools themselves are both branched from the Multi-Camera Body Tracking sample:

  • a parametrizable sample for Unreal Engine 5, using a configuration file
  • a C++ application very close to the sample for Unity.

Fusion Module #

For now, the Unreal Engine 5 and Unity plugins for ZED do not handle the Fusion module of the SDK. The Live Link implementations are the way to bring the Body Tracking Fusion into these engines.

A specific sender for Fusion is provided with each implementation. By giving it the configuration file generated with ZED360, the result of the body tracking fusion, that is to say, the positions and rotations of the bodies’ joints, are sent to the 3D engine. You can then benefit from its capabilities in your Unity or Unreal Engine application.

📌 Note: The ZED Cameras can be opened and used by only one program. If you use these Live Link plugins within the Unreal Engine 5 or Unity plugin, make sure that the cameras they try to use do not overlap. Otherwise, one of the programs will not be able to open the overlapping cameras and will fail.

Get Started #

Explore the available implementations: