{"id":109322,"date":"2020-05-11T09:01:34","date_gmt":"2020-05-11T13:01:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/109322///news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/109322//www.ucf.edu/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/109322//news/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/109322//?p=109322"},"modified":"2025-06-24T13:17:05","modified_gmt":"2025-06-24T17:17:05","slug":"epic-games-maker-of-fortnite-awards-ucf-professor-grant-to-enhance-ar-and-vr-technology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/109322///news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/109322//www.ucf.edu/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/109322//news/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/109322//epic-games-maker-of-fortnite-awards-ucf-professor-grant-to-enhance-ar-and-vr-technology/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/109322//","title":{"rendered":"Epic Games, Maker of Fortnite, Awards Âé¶¹Ó³»´«Ã½ Professor Grant to Enhance AR and VR Technology"},"content":{"rendered":"
The company responsible for the online video game hit Fortnite has awarded a Âé¶¹Ó³»´«Ã½ assistant professor a grant to develop an immersive technology to take virtual experiences to new levels of reality./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/109322/n
Epic Games provided Âé¶¹Ó³»´«Ã½ information scientist and artist Maria Harrington a $25,000 grant to expand her cutting-edge augmented and virtual reality work, which she began in 2016 with a website virtual field trip guide and resulted in the VR 1.0 version, The Virtual Âé¶¹Ó³»´«Ã½ Arboretum. It is available for download from and use on any game or VR-ready PC./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/109322/n The virtual experience allows users to hike through Âé¶¹Ó³»´«Ã½/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/109322/u2019s real arboretum, which is home to 247 acres of unspoiled Florida habitat. The landscapes range from swamps to scrubby flatwoods. The virtual arboretum provides stunning images that look real because they/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/109322/u2019ve been created based on detailed and botanically accurate information. The project pulls from field observations, photos, measurements, drone footage and historical geographic information system (GIS) data. Users can also access a virtual field guide that provides more detailed information about any object in the virtual model. As users traverse the landscape, they can get a close-up view of any plant they see, and can listen to the sounds of the creatures that call the property home./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/109322/n /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/109322/u201cNot only are they photorealistic and beautiful, but what you see is information that represents the data/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/109322/u00ad /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/109322/u00ad/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/109322/u2014 truth /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/109322/u2014 and not creative or artistic fantasy./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/109322/u201d/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/109322/n /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/109322/u201cThese immersive models are different than others, because they are data visualizations of the botanical and ecological information,/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/109322/u201d Harrington says. /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/109322/u201cNot only are they photorealistic and beautiful, but what you see is information that represents the data/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/109322/u00ad /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/109322/u00ad/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/109322/u2014 truth /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/109322/u2014 and not creative or artistic fantasy. Much like botanical illustrations of the past, they are a form of scientific communication, ideal for constructing museum exhibits and in support of educational and informal learning activities desired by the public, especially now during COVID-19./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/109322/u201d/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/109322/n Epic Games provided the money through its MegaGrants program, which seeks to encourage development of the unreal engine ecosystem (all the components that make virtual reality possibly online) or 3D graphics community that makes games like Fortnite more realistic. According to Forbes, the gaming industry was worth $138.7 billion worldwide in 2019. Game-based learning is estimated to account for more than $2 billion in the United States alone./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/109322/n The grant will allow Harrington to explore new techniques to improve the experience and to potentially broaden the collection to initially include botanical gardens and university arboretums from the American Southwest and Pacific Northwest./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/109322/n The project became a reality because of the collaboration among colleagues from the College of Arts and Humanities, and the Âé¶¹Ó³»´«Ã½ Arboretum and Department of Biology, in the College of Sciences, and the Landscape and Natural Resources team at Âé¶¹Ó³»´«Ã½./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/109322/n Harrington/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/109322/u2019s research and experimentation over the past decade has resulted in many programs that have earned local, national, and international recognition./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/109322/n