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Epic Games, Inc. announces a long-term, multi-platform Unreal Engine 3 (UE3) reseller and support agreement with Virtual Heroes, a division of Applied Research Associates, Inc. (ARA). Under the agreement, Virtual Heroes is licensing the award-winning Unreal Engine technology to the departments, agencies and units of the U.S. and allied governments and to support government developers through the establishment of the Unreal Government Network (UGN).As Epic Games’ designated partner for Advanced Learning Technologies (ALT) development, Virtual Heroes licenses and supports UE3 technology on multiple platforms, including iOS, Android, Flash, PC, Mac, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita and Wii U. Virtual Heroes also supports the deployment of browser-based Unreal Engine content across secure government and corporate enterprise networks.
Examples of UGN projects underway include the following:
The Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) awarded ARA-Virtual Heroes a >$10M, multi-year contract under the Sirius program. The goal of the Sirius program is to develop serious games that result in better decision-making by teaching participants to recognize and mitigate the effects of their own biases when analyzing information used to make decisions.
Virtual Heroes, in collaboration with the Duke University Human Simulation and Patient Safety Center, is creating an anesthesiology training application for Army physicians. Virtual Heroes is developing the UE3-powered HumanSim platform for medical education and training. The FBI Academy is using UE3 to develop a multiplayer crime scene training simulation to meet the needs of the FBI. A top five defense contractor and a national laboratory have licensed UE3 and UGN to address their needs for custom model integrations and visualization. “We recognize the growing market needs of our government customers and are excited to have Virtual Heroes provide a full spectrum of focused services and support using our game engine technology,” said Dr. Michael Capps, president, Epic Games. “Virtual Heroes is committed to providing world-class support to our licensees to ensure that all UE3 solutions achieve the best possible results across multiple platforms,” said Jerry Heneghan, founder of Virtual Heroes and director of HumanSim® product development at ARA. “Our technical and creative staff is uniquely qualified to provide a new standard of responsive, personalized service to government customers worldwide.”In addition, ARA’s Virtual Heroes and Epic will lead sessions at this week’s Defense GameTech Users’ Conference in Orlando, Fla. Virtual Heroes Programmer Gabriel Scott and Epic Games Senior Technical Artist and Level Designer Alan Willard will reveal the newest features available in Epic’s technology during “Introduction to Cutting-Edge Games with the Unreal Engine” from 1 – 2:45 p.m. on March 28 and 29.Drawing from almost a decade of experience with Unreal Engine technology, Virtual Heroes develops simulations, serious games and virtual worlds that establish industry benchmarks for innovation, performance and value. Previous UE3-powered projects developed by Virtual Heroes can be viewed at www.unrealengine.com/showcase/simulation_training.
About Virtual Heroes
The Virtual Heroes Division of Applied Research Associates, Inc. creates collaborative interactive learning solutions for healthcare, federal systems, and corporate training markets. Advanced Learning Technologies (ALT) leverage simulation learning and digital games-based training paradigms to accelerate learning, increase user proficiency, and reduce training costs. Virtual Heroes is located in Raleigh, North Carolina, and in Orlando, Florida in the Central Florida Research Park. For more information, please visit: www.virtualheroes.com, www.humansim.com, and www.ara.com.
