Thales to power its next generation of simulators using Unreal Engine 5

Thales has announced it is entering into a long-term agreement with Epic Games, creator of Unreal Engine, the world’s most open and advanced 3D creation tool.  

In the simulation and training market, a major trend is the increasing crossover of immersive gaming technologies to the professional environment, including progress in graphics and reduction in the development time and cost of hardware. To continue improving and producing the best training outcomes, Thales announces its collaboration with Epic Games. 

Thales continues to advance based on its recent acquisition of RUAG Simulation & Training to offer a wide range of live, virtual and constructive products for its growing worldwide business. As part of that activity, Thales will work to progressively incorporate Unreal Engine, with the goal of advancing the professional simulation features into its extensive product range.

Unreal Engine 5, the latest version of Epic’s cutting edge real-time technology, offers significant new potential for the simulation industry and has proven to be successful for simulation and training applications, as it offers the ability to quickly incorporate real-world scenarios into actionable training environments in days. Unreal Engine 5 is bringing an unprecedented level of innovation by enabling users to reconcile data accuracy, photorealism and real-time applications.

Peter Hitchcock, Vice President of the Training and Simulation business at Thales said, “We are very pleased to be working in collaboration with the Unreal Engine team at Epic Games. Their focus on providing advanced tools and technologies that have been adopted in industries beyond games matches our ambitions for taking professional simulation to the next level. Rapid insertion of Unreal Engine into our product lines gives us opportunities to delight our customers, particularly in the land training market where high-quality, densely populated synthetic environments help produce the best training outcomes.”

Sebastien Loze, Unreal Engine Business Director for Simulation at Epic Games said, “Thales has a long and successful history for bringing professionals together with technology to help prepare for the complex challenges of the Training and Simulation industry. Combining Thales’ experience with Unreal Engine 5’s ground breaking new toolsets for generating massive, highly realistic, highly accurate, open worlds will allow industry stakeholders to train in a way that’s never been possible before.”