When my partner and I started Villusion Studios almost two years ago, we knew that we wanted to use this amazing new technology (real-time rendering) to work on things that weren’t traditionally the domain of a game engine. We were talking to retailers, design companies, and a host of others about how a real-time engine could change the way they prototype, design, and execute.
A little over a year ago, WestCom Nurse Call Systems called us to see if we were interested in helping them create an interactive training and marketing tool. This would allow their sales and marketing team to showcase their products and how they interact in a digital environment, rather than a difficult physical demo system. You can see how they presented their products here. This new tool allows them to showcase their products, and how they interact, from a Microsoft Surface Tablet or a PC. We built the system from scratch in Unreal Engine 4, and although it was extremely complicated, and needed a few work-arounds, it turned out amazing. The simulator included:
- Softworkz.com licensing validation
- Quality Settings (for use on different systems)
- Interactive Product Viewer
- Extensive UMG utilization (simulated their software on all hardware)
- All products interact with each other according to physical hardware system requirements
- Interactive usage scenarios showcasing all products
- Picture-In-Picture views for quick review of multiple products
- Automatic walk-throughs of multiple scripted scenarios for demo purposes
- Automatic demos can be queued so that multiple scenarios can be played on after the other
- Pillow remote controls lights, turns TV off and on, changes TV volume and channels
- Interactive map for quick teleporting between rooms
- More…
Here is a 6 Min video showcasing the applicaiton:
[video]- YouTube
It’s been a long road developing this, and we are extremely proud of the results. It was great to work with the WestCom team to bring this project to life. Unreal Engine 4 was incredible to work with, and we pushed it to it’s limits with many parts of this application. We can’t wait to see how the engine continues to develop and new features are implemented (Media Framework support for 4K video files!). We would love to hear your feedback on the video, since we can’t hand out the application. Thank you Unreal Engine! Looking forward to more success!
Barry Zundel
