Turkish defense firm Havelsan, which invests in "serious game" technologies used in the defense industry, announced Monday that it has entered a partnership with Epic Games, best known for its Unreal Engine platform, for the release of a first-person shooter game called "Malazgirt."
According to information gathered by the Anadolu Agency (AA), Havelsan, which operates in the defense, simulation, informatics, national security, and cyber security, continues to invest in "serious game" technologies.
Having implemented the "Malazgirt Serious Game Infrastructure Project," Havelsan has taken its recent work on challenging games to a new level.
Epic Games, which has attracted attention as one of the world’s leading gaming companies, is known for developing Unreal Engine, a widely used tool in the video game industry.
Thanks to the recent advances in technology and the development of Unreal Engine, the use of game technologies for various sectors besides video games has come to the fore.
Segments like simulation, the Metaverse, architecture, and cinema can use game technologies. Still, a limited number of experts worldwide in Unreal Engine technology has opened up many disciplines with this developing technology.
As a result, Epic Games decided to create a portal by bringing together several companies whose expertise it has audited and approved worldwide.
Companies accepted as service partners and published on Epic Games’ portal will communicate with each other and have the chance to support partnership projects developed in their fields worldwide.
With this partnership and its inclusion on the official service partner portal of Epic Games, Havelsan has also had the opportunity to promote its work and the services it provides in simulation projects specific to the areas it undertakes on a prestigious platform.
Malazgirt Project led efforts
Havelsan General Manager Mehmet Akif Nacar said they had completed the first phase of the Malazgirt Project within the scope of their work in serious games, and they will start the second phase.
Pointing out the importance of presenting realistic images, the outside world, and the physical effects as accurate in simulators and war games, Nacar said the importance of serious games increases when it is made a tool for modeling battlefield.
"It is an area where all kinds of external environments, from streams to hills, from bridges to roads, from trees to plants, from wind to snow, from rain to hail, are modeled as if they were real," he said.
They explained they started using the Unreal Engine technology, which has become the most developed game engine in this field, with the Malazgirt Project. Nacar said they signed an agreement with Epic Games later.
"In line with this agreement, Havelsan has become one of the most important representatives of Epic Games in the region. We have developed cooperation issues such as some after-sales services of Epic Games, working with Havelsan as the authorized representative on Unreal game development," he said.
Noting they will make the Malazgirt Project open source after completing the second phase, Nacar said they would make it available to game developers.
"You can produce valuable values in open source and make them licensed, for example, to model the platforms used in our country. For example, you can model all platforms such as Atak, Hürkuş, Hürjet, Anka, Bayraktar TB2, Aksungur, Akınciı, MİLGEM, LHD and turn these models into intelligent units supported by artificial intelligence," he said, referring to Turkish-made defense equipment.
"In other words, by supporting them with a game engine, you can see how they produce a 3D image in the real environment, in the war environment, how they interact, together with the effects of the outside world, and their educational benefits. We know it is a company with a wide ecosystem, and we want to ensure that the domestic-national platforms developed in our country develop in terms of games by turning more towards areas such as casual games, serious games, war games," he added.
‘Virtual war environment’
Pointing out that Havelsan has developed various products in this field with over 25 years of modeling and simulation experience, Nacar said they are moving toward a world where a practice environment can be combined with virtual reality and shot-in-reality with the help of developing technologies.
Emphasizing that profound gaming technologies are very important in this technological development, he said, "2023 will be a year in which we will realize the digital warfare environment by adding visuality on top of our knowledge from the past and launch products in this field."
"Later on, we will continue our presence in this field with more advanced products, and we will go one step ahead, the benefit of it being an open source and having an ecosystem. (But) we do not have the chance to model and integrate every scenario or platform into the system. This means more need for workforce and effort," he added.
"Therefore, it is important that these are developed and integrated more quickly by spreading to the ecosystem. And then, we will assume the role of incorporating them and realize the virtual war environment and the ecosystem because the world is going toward the Metaverse.
"These technologies are also in the Metaverse infrastructure. We started with war games and went from virtual games to virtual twins. We are heading towards a world where real physical and virtual platforms work together. One of the crucial areas of technology here is the field of serious games. We want to consolidate our presence in this area further. This is where the world is going. I want to express that we are ready to fulfill our duty for our country to go further in this field," he added.