Helsinki-based 3D middleware firm Umbra has pulled in a $3.4 million venture capital investment, which it plans to use to expand its technology in new directions.
The money came from Inventure, Lifeline Ventures and Initial Capital and angel investors.
The company’s middleware optimizes 3D objects to reduce overhead when displaying them in scenes — meaning that only what’s seen by the player will be displayed, in a process known as occlusion culling. Its technology has been used in triple-A games including The Witcher III and Destiny.
The company plans to turn its attention towards large-scale 3D data moving forward — moving beyond the video game industry, which it intends to continue supporting.
“We’re expanding our technology to enable storing, streaming and rendering of massive 3D data sets. We already have a functional prototype that will be first released on top of game engines such as Unity and Unreal. Our goal is to make 3D available for everyone in the future,” CEO Otso Mäkinen said in a statement.