Epic Games’ Unreal Development Kit is one of the most accesible game development suites on the market, which has gained the technology an industry full of supporters from fans to developers. Now Epic has its sights on an even bigger industry using the same software – the construction field.
With the release of its August 2011 version of the UDK Beta (free, as always), Epic announced that the Takenaka Corporation will be using UDK (like in the digital model of the company’s Tokyo Office pictured above) in place of conventional construction virtual reality modeling programs. The decision came straight from the head of the company’s Office of Design Management, Takashi Katagiri.
"After conducting all kinds of research," Katagiri said, "we realized that we should also be able to render designs at a cutting-edge level of quality using what is commonly known as a game engine.
"Although there are many kinds of game engines, we chose the Unreal Engine due to its track record, visibility and high quality performance. Because we were basically starting from square one, it was also a big plus that we could download UDK for free and try it out ourselves."
Because of its ease of use, precision, lightmass calculations, and screen space ambient occlusion capabilities (among a myriad of other strengths), UDK has broken out of its gaming niche and into a much larger market. If this change launches Epic meaningfully into the construction and architecture business, the synergy of the two idea spaces may prove beneficial to both.
For a comprehensive look into ongoing UDK projects, check out www.udk.com.
[UDK]
