Metaverse Engineering: Epic v. Apple , Ontopolitical Play, and Gaming the Law

The development of games industries today is speedy and has become more modern. The game company must develop their game to the next level, for example not long-ago Epic Games company release their new engine. The engine used for making the game can be used for 3D modeling as well. Unreal Engine 5 provided terrific graphics and more features than an older version of Unreal Engine. Epic Games company provided their engine free for all or open-source which can be used by anyone for free. Unreal Engine can be more useful for the game developer or 3D modeling. Without a doubt that Unreal Engine 5 by Epic Games can bring a new era to the game. A lot of developer wants to create a more powerful engine than Unreal Engine 5 but for now, there is no new engine that can beat Unreal Engine 5. For example, Frostbite engine by DICE adds more updates to catch up with Unreal Engine 5

This chapter explores the idea of metaverse in the context of the gaming industry using the case of Epic Games. Concentrating on Fortnite and Unreal Engine, the case study describes how Epic Games has expanded its business model, leaving behind the conventional types of revenue generation and focusing on event-based virtual economies, user-generated content, and branded entertainment experiences. The research also looks at broader applications of the Unreal Engine, especially when used for industries outside of video gaming like healthcare, architecture, and film industries. Moreover, the current chapter investigates the emerging issues regarding regulation, possession of virtual assets, and essential ethical issues of the metaverse. The conclusions present ideas useful for practitioners and researchers when exploring the nature of innovations that may appear in the new environment.

The development of hardware increasing rapidly has made game developers take advantage of a variety of new resources that can improve their games. Epic games is a mature game developer who managed to make thousands game and delivered to the hands of gamers . A game engine called Unreal Engine is a big secret behind the success of Epic Games . The game engine is free if you just want to learn or just want to create a personal project and the game is not to be in comercial purposes . It is unfortunate that many students don’t even know of the existence of unreal engine , most of them make use of simpler game engine like game maker , rpg maker , fps creator , and so on. Though unreal engine is superior in any aspect other than the game engine , be it graphics , tools , mechanisms of development , flexible in export-import assets , etc . Based on this information , the author had the idea to make a first person shooter game using the unreal engine as the engine game. Before doing the develpment process, the next step is studying the literature of unreal engine and other supporting software such as 3d studio max to create 3D assets , adobe flash to create the menus , adobe photoshop to create a 2D texture and speedtree assets to create the foliage elements . The next thing is to go into the design phase of scenarios , maps, missions , characters and items that will be placed in the game. The next stage is the development and testing phase to test the game that has finished .The results of the design of this game is the realization of a first person shooter game application using unreal engine with features that can support the player 's interest in playing the game . It’s also introducing unreal engine to students who are interested in designing games.

Epic Games' Unreal Engine 4 Infiltrator real-time demonstration presents high-end rendering features, including physically based materials and lighting, full-scene HDR reflections, advanced GPU particle simulation, adaptive detail with artist-programmable tessellation and displacement, dynamically lit particles that emit and receive light, and thousands of dynamic lights with tiled deferred shading.

Title: Exploring the Frontiers of Space in 3D Presenter: Chris Impey (University of Arizona, USA) Collaborators:Alexander Denehy (University of Arizona, USA)Metthew Wenger (University of Arizona, USA) This was a poster presented at the 5th Shaw-IAU Workshop on Astronomy for Education, organised by the IAU Office of Astronomy for Education (OAE, http//astro4edu.org). Immersive virtual reality provides an excellent way to experience astronomy facilities that the public generally cannot visit. Epic Games’ Unreal Engine has been used to create a 3D exhibit where visitors use a game controller to walk their avatars among cutting-edge optical and radio telescopes, with the Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes hovering overhead. Several of the telescopes are animated. OSIRIS-Rex is seen next to a detailed and suitably scaled rendition of the Bennu asteroid, and part of the virtual real estate is textured as a Martian surface with several Mars missions included. Visits are self-guided with interactive posters giving the main scientific results of the various telescopes and missions. About the 5th Shaw-IAU Workshop on Astronomy for Education:This year’s Shaw-IAU Workshop on Astronomy for Education focuses on two themes: one special practical astronomy education topic and one scientific topic. The special topic is astronomy education outside the classroom, looking at how astronomy can be taught in a diverse range of environments such as science centers, planetaria and youth clubs. The scientific topic is planetary atmospheres, both in the solar system and exoplanets as well as our own Earth. The workshop was organised by the IAU Office of Astronomy for Education (http://astro4edu.org). More details can be found on: https://astro4edu.org/shaw-iau/5th-shaw-iau-workshop/schedule/ Keep up to date with future Shaw-IAU Workshops and other opportunities at the IAU Office of Astronomy for Education by joining our mailing list https://astro4edu.org/mailing-list/ Follow the IAU OAE on X and Facebook under @astro4edu

This chapter covers the basics of using Unreal Engine 4. We will start by launching and setting up the engine. To access Unreal Engine 4, you need to have the Epic Games Launcher installed on your PC. You can get it from the official website of Epic Games. Download the launcher for Windows or Mac, whichever platform you are using. After the installation is done, launch the Epic Games Launcher and navigate to the Unreal Engine section. Go to the Library tab and download the engine version of your choice, preferably the most recent version. Unreal Engine is large, so it will take some time to download. Once the download is complete, launch the engine. The first window that will appear is shown in Figure 9-1.

Unreal Engine, a real-time rendering platform developed by Epic Games, has expanded beyond gaming and is used in architecture, automotive design, and the movie industry. Due to its ability to generate high-fidelity visualizations, simulate real-world interactions, and support virtual prototyping, it also has the potential to be a valuable tool for industrial designers. This study investigates its application in product design through a self-reflective practice-based approach. As the sole participant, the author conducted iterative design experiments comparing conventional methods (sketching, CAD modeling, physical mock-ups) with Unreal Engine–based workflows in the design of handheld electronic gaming devices. The author’s reflections documented workflow efficiency, visualization quality, cost reduction, and learning experience. Findings suggest that Unreal Engine significantly improves iteration speed, offers highly realistic visualizations, reduces material costs by limiting the need for physical prototypes, and enhances design decision-making. The study demonstrates that Unreal Engine can transform industrial design practice by streamlining workflows, promoting sustainability, and fostering new competencies in digital prototyping.

Learning from human demonstrations is fundamental to harnessing human intelligence in many tasks. A critical approach to learning from human demonstrations is inverse reinforcement learning, which aims to learn rewards from limited human demonstrations and then train control policies based on the learned reward. The existing inverse reinforcement learning methods perform well in less complex environments but often fail in complex high-dimensional environments. To overcome these difficulties and limitations, this paper studies the implementation of a generative adversarial imitation learning (GAIL) method that controls a quadcopter Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) to navigate between two defined positions in a virtual environment created in Unreal Engine, whose simulation environments can reflect real-world physics. We present procedures to build a customized virtual environment using the Epic game's {Unreal engine}, collect expert demonstrations, and optimize the control policy using GAIL. Finally, the simulation results discuss and explain the performance of GAIL in 3-dimensional UAV navigation.

Abstract: In the realm of software engineering, the gaming industry is experiencing rapid growth, with shooter games emerging as one of the most popular genres for independent video game developers. These games are characterized by their fast-paced action, requiring a combination of skills from players, including strategic thinking, hand-eye coordination, and quick reflexes. To develop such games, developers can choose from a range of game engines, including Unity3D, Unreal Engine, Game Maker, and Godot, each offering access to a comprehensive suite of technologies and tools. Among these engines, Unity3D stands out as an integrated development tool, commonly used to create interactive content, such as video games and real-time 3D animations. Its user-friendly interface and cross-platform capabilities make it an ideal choice for independent developers, while its extensive library of assets provides a wealth of resources for creating engaging and immersive shooter games. This paragraph, with its professional tone, would be suitable for inclusion in a project abstract or other formal documents related to the field of software engineering. Our project demonstrates the creation of a video game using Unreal Engine and an agile methodology, which consists of four stages: preproduction, production, testing, and post-production. Through careful planning and execution, we were able to create a high-quality game in a short period of time with limited resources. This methodology has proven to be efficient, economical, and sustainable, reducing development costs and ensuring faster time to market. Our project showcases the applicability of this methodology, reinforcing our belief that adopting agile methodologies can lead to successful and sustainable projects in the gaming industry.

PurposeThis study aims to examine two questions that contribute to understanding the organizational corporate governance forms of the so-called New World: What have been the social and cultural forces that gave rise to the institutional features of the Anglo-Saxon corporate states and the Hispanic patrimonial states? And how have these traits influenced the governance forms of North American and Latin American firms?Design/methodology/approachA comparative historical analysis methodology that dates back to the colonial foundations of the New World was used. Analysis categories were derived to allow us to reflect on the phenomenon studied and support the hypotheses while deriving observations that explain the historical relationships of the state types and their capitalisms with contemporary corporate governance. The research also considered case analysis in context, presented as specific empirical evidence.FindingsThe paper maintains that the historical social and cultural forces that were configured in the New World shaped the institutional features of the Anglo-Saxon corporate states with liberal capitalism and the Hispanic patrimonial states with hierarchical capitalism, and that these features are related to the predominant organizational corporate governance forms in North American and Latin American firms, respectively.Originality/valueThis paper provides insights into the social, cultural and institutional factors that gave rise to corporate and patrimonial states and their relationships with the different types of organizational corporate governance. It introduces a categorization into the literature with three types of organizational corporate governance (e.g. corporatist, patrimonial and hybrid). This allows progress in linking corporate governance theories with a managerial focus and governance perspectives oriented to economic and social development.

Nite Shift is an animated short based on Epic Games' Fortnite and rendered entirely in real time using Unreal Engine 4. Indistinguishable from a traditionally rendered piece, the short demonstrates how Unreal's advanced cinematic tools empower storytellers of all experience levels to realize the benefits of real-time workflows.

In the rapidly evolving and ever-changing media and entertainment landscape, Epic Games, Inc. And Netflix, Inc. are seen as innovators in the industry. This paper analyzes the strategic layout of Epic Games and Netflix in the market competition, focusing on how they compete for dominance in digital entertainment. Built on its Unreal Engine and extensive gaming ecosystem, Epic Games is committed to pushing the frontiers of gaming technology and expanding into virtual and augmented reality. Netflix, by contrast, has strengthened its global leadership in streaming through continued innovation and content diversification. This article provides a thorough analysis of their business model, strategy, and required changes, and explores how these factors have helped them continue to dominate the market. Finally, the paper summarizes the trends of Epic Games and Netflix in the future digital entertainment market and evaluates their potential opportunities and risks in the global competition.

Manual annotation of anatomical landmarks, such as acupuncture points or acupoints, is labor-intensive, prone to variability, and limited in clinical datasets. To overcome these constraints, this study introduces the MetaAcuPoint depth dataset (MAP-d dataset), a novel high-fidelity synthetic RGB-D dataset generated using Unreal Engine 5.4 and Epic Games’ MetaHuman avatars. The dataset provides pixel-aligned RGB-D image pairs with anatomically consistent annotations for five clinically relevant acupoints: LI4, TE3, TE5, LI10, and LI11. Reusable skeletal sockets ensure annotation reproducibility across diverse hand morphologies. Domain randomization in pose, skin tone, and skeletal structure enhances the dataset’s demographic and anatomical variability. A lightweight convolutional neural network benchmarked the dataset using RGB-only and RGB-D inputs. While absolute localization accuracy remains modest due to the model’s simplicity, depth augmentation consistently improved performance, yielding a 22.9% reduction in mean distance error and a 57.6% increase in PCK@10. These results confirm the effectiveness of the dataset design. MAP-d provides a scalable resource for developing acupoint localization models, with future potential in clinical training, augmented reality, and real-world deployment.

Visualizing the traumatic past is a perennial challenge, particularly for historians of the slave trade. New innovations in digital technologies may offer a transformative framework to address this problem. Epic Games and its Unreal Engine, developed for use in industries such as film and video game production, animation, architectural visualization, and virtual reality simulations, offer one potential avenue to efficiently visualize a challenging past. Epic Games’s MetaHuman Creator – high-fidelity digital humans, fully rigged and able to be quickly animated with little more than an iPhone – offer another related means of viscerally recreating the past in ways which offer new insights for researchers and new tools for educators.

BackgroundAlthough battlefield first aid (BFA) training shares many common features with civilian training, such as the need to address technical skills and nontechnical skills (NTSs), it is more highly scenario-dependent. Studies into extended reality show clear benefits in medical training; however, the training effects of extended reality on NTSs, including teamwork and decision-making in BFA, have not been fully proven.ObjectiveThe current study aimed to create and test a scenario-based, mixed-reality platform suitable for training NTSs in BFA.MethodsFirst, using next-generation modeling technology and an animation synchronization system, a 10-person offensive battle drill was established. Decision-making training software addressing basic principles of tactical combat casualty care was constructed and integrated into the scenarios with Unreal Engine 4 (Epic Games). Large-space teamwork and virtual interaction systems that made sense in the proposed platform were developed. Unreal Engine 4 and software engineering technology were used to combine modules to establish a mixed-reality BFA training platform. A total of 20 Grade 4 medical students were recruited to accept BFA training with the platform. Pretraining and posttraining tests were carried out in 2 forms to evaluate the training effectiveness: one was knowledge acquisition regarding the NTS and the other was a real-world, scenario-based test. In addition, the students were asked to rate their agreement with a series of survey items on a 5-point Likert scale.ResultsA battlefield geographic environment, tactical scenarios, scenario-based decision software, large-space teamwork, and virtual interaction system modules were successfully developed and combined to establish the mixed-reality training platform for BFA. The posttraining score of the students’ knowledge acquisition was significantly higher than that of pretraining (t=−12.114; P≤.001). Furthermore, the NTS score and the total score that the students obtained in the real-world test were significantly higher than those before training (t=−17.756 and t=−21.354, respectively; P≤.001). However, there was no significant difference between the scores of technical skills that the students obtained before and after training. A posttraining survey revealed that the students found the platform helpful in improving NTSs for BFA, and they were confident in applying BFA skills after training. However, most trainees thought that the platform was not helpful for improving the technical skills of BFA, and 45% (9/20) of the trainees were not satisfied with the simulation effect.ConclusionsA scenario-based, mixed-reality platform was constructed in this study. In this platform, interaction of the movement of multiple players in a large space and the interaction of decision-making by the trainees between the real world and the virtual world were accomplished. The platform could improve the NTSs of BFA. Future works, including improvement of the simulation effects and development of a training platform that could effectively improve both the technical skills and NTSs of BFA, will be carried out.