[Edaily Reporter Kim Hyun-ah ] NC AI, a subsidiary of NCsoftCorporation(036570), has unveiled its next-generation 3D generative artificial intelligence (AI) model, “VARCO 3D 2.0,” and set out to target the global 3D generative AI market. It is widely recognized that the company has demonstrated top-tier performance using its own proprietary technology in a market currently dominated by U.S. and Chinese firms.

NC AI, a company specializing in multimodal AI, announced on the 24th that it has completed the development of the next-generation model of “VARCO 3D,” an AI service that generates high-quality 3D assets using only images or text.

VARCO 3D 2.0 is a significantly enhanced version of the existing model released last December. According to the company, it has greatly improved the issue of distortion in the original shapes—a chronic limitation of 3D generative AI—thereby raising the level of refinement to a standard suitable for use in actual production environments.

While demand for 3D data has recently surged beyond games and video content to include the manufacturing, robotics, and digital twin industries, existing generative AI has faced issues such as images being distorted into forms different from the originals or the loss of fine structural details.

Barco 3D 2.0 faithfully preserves the silhouette and proportions of the original image while precisely reproducing even complex decorative elements and fine details. It is expected to enhance content production efficiency by enabling the creation of complex structures—such as characters, creatures, and buildings—while maintaining the creator’s original intent.

Its performance has been validated through global benchmarks. It achieved a score of 0.449 on Uni3D, a leading 3D shape similarity evaluation metric, representing an approximately 41% improvement over the previous version (0.319). This score surpasses Trellis2 (0.436), Ultrashape (0.428), and Hunyuan3D 2.1 (0.427)—all of which are considered among the best in the global open-source landscape.

It also achieved top performance on major evaluation metrics such as CLIP-N and ULIP-2, securing competitiveness at the global SOTA (State of the Art) level.

Visual quality has also been enhanced. It supports textures at resolutions up to 4K and realistically renders the textures, surface patterns, and even signs of wear of various materials, such as metal and wood. It is expected to have high applicability not only in gaming and video production but also in fields requiring high-quality 3D modeling, such as industrial simulation and digital twin construction.

NC AI’s strategy is to develop Barco 3D into a core infrastructure for the era of Physical AI and digital twins. For Physical AI to learn from the real world, large-scale 3D data reflecting the shapes and physical properties of real objects is essential.

Barco 3D can reduce the time required to create 3D assets—which previously took experts about four weeks—to within three minutes, thereby dramatically lowering data creation costs for companies. It is also expected to meet the demand for digital transformation in the manufacturing, construction, and defense sectors, as well as for building data for AI training.

It is noteworthy that a Korean company has advanced its proprietary foundation model in the 3D generative AI market, which is currently dominated by the United States and China. This achievement is significant in terms of reducing dependence on foreign technology and securing data security and AI sovereignty.

Lee Yeon-soo, CEO of NC AI, stated, “Barco 3D 2.0 will drive innovation in the content creation environment based on its unparalleled shape retention and high-quality texture rendering capabilities,” adding, “We will grow it into a core platform that supports the era of physical AI and digital twins, based on our proprietary domestic AI technology.”

Barco 3D 2.0 is scheduled to be integrated into the SaaS (Software as a Service) platform this coming July. Existing users will be able to access the enhanced performance and new features without any additional steps.