Unity signs "multi-million dollar" contract to help U.S. government with defense

https://www.gamedeveloper.com/busin...-contract-to-help-u-s-government-with-defense

 

Not really a new development, honestly.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/y3d...-ethics-as-it-expands-from-video-games-to-war

 

Speaking of defense contracts, maybe they can continue/revive AA with modern graphics

 

And make it use visuals from the simpsons?

Spoiler

 

The bad news around Unity just never seem to end.

 

Not new at all. The size of the deal is all that makes it noteworthy. People have been buying Unity licenses and using them for non-game stuff basically from the start, and that has definitely included defence projects. I vaguely recall in 2012 or so that Unity was one of the first engines to be officially vetted for certain types of use by some part of the US military.

 

Isn't it good news that more people want to use Unity to make real projects?

 

Unity is not the only game engine to be used by the US military.

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/unreal-engine-to-support-u-s-army-research-training
https://www.pcgamer.com/us-military...-reality-training-sim-powered-by-cryengine-3/

Here's a game the US military released in 2002 made in Unreal Engine 2.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America's_Army

Before anyone runs off to Godot remember it's open source and they can just fork it.

 

That's the nature of code and versatile software. It can be used for all sorts of things...

 

Yes just the software being used and having direct contract is the difference. I'm not just talking about the licence.

 

Americas Army was one the first exposures to Unreal Engine for my gaming group back in the day. It was great fun for us but also provided lots of exposure for the new game engine.

The article doesn't say what type of 'simulation' programs might it be used for but given how gaming have only become much more popular and AA has been shut down...hell, it's about time

 

It's very likely training simulations including stuff involving XR. Don't get your hopes up.

 

What is bad news about unity being used for serious simulation work? Sounds like great news to me.

 

I'm thinking that Tencent, a Chinese company, having a 40% stake in Epic Games would make the US military uneasy about going with Unreal. Unity is the most logical alternative.

Yeah I was wondering if we'd see a Unity release of America's Army after this announcement

 

Microsoft did a hololens contract with the military a while ago now. Almost all hololens content is built using unity (I know as I used to be a hololens developer working alongside multiple major govermenment agencies etc at the time).

So unity has been used for military for ages now both directly via contracts for usage of unity itself, and indirectly via contracts for platforms that use unity almost exclusively as their tool for content generation (such as with XR platforms or mobile) - none of this is new.

If the military want to make content, they will get the industry standard tools to make said content. Nothing really good or bad about this, its just part of having a content creation tool that does what they need it to do - if it meets their requirements they will use it.

 

Just need these guys to work on the simulation now and America can sleep safe at night.