Orlando, Fla., 26 November 2018 . Presagis announced a strategic collaboration with Epic Games, the maker of Unreal Engine and Fortnite, to help the simulation industry achieve unprecedented realism and quality for virtual environments created from geospatial data.
Presagis plans to bring expanded functionality to Epic’s Unreal Engine by enabling geospatial data streaming and processing, geographic WGS-84 round-earth support as well as software infrastructure for runtime paging and streaming of massive datasets. This will include the support of numerous geospatial and simulation data formats, starting with OpenFlight, MetaFlight and OGC CDB as part of the first new features offered to the community. This extension of Unreal Engine capabilities will enable the development of new, immersive simulation capabilities and solutions featuring whole-earth support in land, sea and air domains.
“Much like Unreal Studio’s Datasmith, which is designed to solve specific challenges for those who want to use Unreal for real-time rendering and visualization with their existing 3D data sets, we are working with Presagis to build an offering that will allow industries including architecture, automotive, construction, manufacturing, simulation and more to better leverage their environmental and geospatial virtual assets,” said Marc Petit, General Manager, Unreal Engine Enterprise at Epic.
“By uniting Presagis expertise in the simulation industry with Epic’s market-leading technology, we are extremely well-positioned to help shape the future of live, virtual and constructive training,” said Jean-Michel Brière, General Manager of Presagis. “The convergence of simulation and gaming undoubtedly enhances and improves simulation solutions, especially with regard to training. It also allows the market to tap into a new and massive pool of developers who can help transform the simulation landscape,” added Brière.
“The simulation industry is continually working to solve the challenges that come with runtime visual interaction using massive amounts of geospatial data in a 3D environment. By working with Presagis, we are enabling the community to use their existing databases and creation pipelines without ever leaving the real-time experience. True to Epic’s values, new features will be open so that third-party developers can create expansions for any specific environmental and terrain databases,” explained Sebastien Loze, Senior Technical Product Manager for Training and Simulation, Epic Games.
The benefits of game technology in the simulation and training industry go far beyond photorealistic visuals and include access to almost limitless assets and secondary technologies associated with games, from characters behaviors and AI to support for the latest in VR and AR. The collaboration between Presagis and Epic will help organizations accelerate the adoption and use of mixed reality in training.
This collaboration with Epic is just a first step, with more tools, richer assets and capabilities to come over the course of 2019 and beyond.
