Unreal Engine 3, coming to a U.S. Army training sim near you

Epic Games and partner Applied Research Associates (ARA) have teamed up with Intelligent Decisions (ID) to bring Unreal Engine 3 to the U.S. Army. The move is part of Epic and ARA's Unreal Government Network, which licenses the engine and the 'Go' platform to government agencies for use in serious games. Under the licensing agreement with Intelligent Decisions, the engine will be used to develop "state of the art 3D training technology and simulation content in support of a contract with the U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering command," according to the press release. "Unreal Engine 3 will give ID's training scenario composers the ability to integrate an incoming fire haptic feedback system, full skeletal controls, and to customize terrain, weather, enemy forces, and other treacherous aspects of real life combat missions," says Intelligent Decisions' Clarence Pape. "[The engine's] capabilities will enable us to provide a new level of content fidelity and production efficiency for our customers." Military contracting is a large industry, of course, while serious games and game-like training simulations have had a solid foothold in safe training exercises for military servicepeople for years. 2004's Full Spectrum Warrior, for instance, began life as one such training tool before it was adapted into a commercial title.