Unreal Engine Immersive Experience Tips: API Data from TouchDesigner

Get access to 200+ hours of TouchDesigner video training, a private Facebook group where Elburz Sorkhabi and Matthew Ragan answer all your questions, and twice-monthly group coaching/mastermind calls here: http://iihq.tv/Trial

Get project files here: https://interactiveimmersive.ac-page.com/unreal-engine-immersive-experience-tricks

A common feature of interactive and immersive installations is the visualization of data retrieved from a web API. Whether this is data related to traffic, weather, financial information, or any of the other seemingly infinite data sets accessible via API (there are a lot!), a JSON file isn’t very exciting for most people to look at! Taking this information and translating it into visual content can help make the information more accessible and exciting.

Since Unreal Engine is quickly becoming a go-to tool for interactive and immersive developers, you might be wondering how you can access and utilize API data in projects of your own.

In this video, Jack DiLaura walks you through an approach to this dilemma, where you’ll use TouchDesigner to access and process weather data, before sending it over to Unreal Engine via OSC. In Unreal Engine, you’ll utilize blueprints to spawn cubes when data is received, and apply color to each cube based on forecasted temperature values.

API Link for TouchDesigner: https://api.open-meteo.com/v1/forecast?latitude=52.52&longitude=13.41&hourly=temperature_2m

Unreal Engine OSC In Blueprint: https://blueprintue.com/blueprint/p31psh66/