In Virtual Reality and Mixed Reality News
July 30, 2020 – Varjo, a provider of industrial-grade virtual reality (VR)/extended reality (XR) headsets and software, has today announced that it has received a MegaGrant by Epic Games in order to further develop its mixed reality support for Unreal Engine.
Epic MegaGrants is a USD $100 million program that supports creators working with Unreal Engine or enhancing open-source capabilities for the 3D graphics community. Varjo did not disclose the amount of the grant, although it did state that the “sizeable” MegaGrant will be utilized in support of its Varjo XR-1 Developer Edition headset as part of the mainline offering of Unreal Engine, which the company added will help to strengthen immersive solutions for enterprises worldwide.
“Varjo currently provides one of the most advanced mixed reality hardware and software solutions for demanding industrial use,” said Sebastian Loze, Industry Manager for Simulations at Epic Games. “We are excited to soon have mainline support for Varjo products in the primary Unreal distribution to continue delivering the highest-end visualization for our customers. The addition of new mixed reality features in Unreal Engine enables a new class of application development.”
Varjo’s devices are used by commercial, government, and academic organizations to train pilots and astronauts, conduct automotive design reviews, and run consumer and clinical research leveraging immersive environments, according to the company. With Varjo, professionals can create and train in human-eye resolution VR/XR experiences, and benefit from analytics capabilities enabled by the integrated 20/20 Eye Tracker. Varjo states that its key customers include Volvo Cars, Boeing Starliner, FlightSafety International, and Lockheed Martin.
“We are thrilled to have this support from Epic Games to expand our delivery of mixed reality solutions for the most demanding enterprise VR/XR applications through Unreal Engine,” said John Burwell, Global Lead of Simulation and Training at Varjo. “With OpenXR as the target interface, developers will, for the first time, have access to the industry’s most advanced enterprise-grade mixed reality features to support composing real and virtual environments for a wide variety of applications. Planned features include full support for Varjo’s photorealistic visual fidelity, eye tracking and real-time chroma keying. The resulting solution is likely to position Unreal Engine as the most advanced platform for enterprise mixed reality development.”
The Varjo XR-1 Developer Edition offers human-eye resolution visual fidelity (over 60 PPD in the center of the field of view), integrated depth sensing, and low latency video pass-through mixed reality. With the Varjo XR-1, developers are able to create highly immersive virtual and mixed reality simulation experiences for a broad range of use cases. With Varjo, users can read text on displays and interact with the smallest buttons, switches and gauges, as well as see objects at realistic visibility ranges.
For more information on how Varjo’s devices are being used, please visit the company’s website.
Image credit: Varjo
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About the author
Sam is the Founder and Managing Editor of Auganix. With a background in research and report writing, he has been covering XR industry news for the past seven years.