Why Volvo has decided to ally with Fortnite’s Epic Games
More and more automotive giants claim that in the future cars will be chosen based on the infotainment offered on board: after Tesla, Sony and Honda, it is the turn of Volvo and Epic Games
For a video game giant like Sony – known to most for PlayStation – who enters the automotive sector, an automotive giant teams up with a video game software house. It will truly be a world of hi-tech cars, that of the next few years and the alliances of the last few days allow us to glimpse some new things to come. For example, the intention of Volvo Cars, Swedish manufacturer now in the hands of the Chinese Geely, is intriguing and not a little bit curious, to introduce photorealistic display technology in its next generation of electric cars thanks to a new collaboration with Epic Games , as announced from the news agency Energia Oltre .
WHAT IS EPIC GAMES AND WHY EVERYONE REALLY LIKES IT
We are talking about the software house that churned out that Fortnite blockbuster video game (over 15 million gamers in the same month) but which owes its positioning above all to the development of the Unreal Engine, without which many video games from other development studios would not have existed. or in any case not with that aspect that made them known. Sony itself, to stay on the subject, has decided to bet several times on the very successful Potomac software house, founded in 1991 by Tim Sweeney , the last time a few months ago with an injection of 1 billion dollars , which become 2 billions if we consider the recent investment by KIRKBI, Kirk Kristiansen 's family holding company led by Søren Thorup Sørensen who controls The LEGO Group.
WHAT VOLVO AND EPIC GAMES WILL DO
Volvo's intent is to exploit Epic Games' Unreal Engine to develop digital interfaces inside its cars and to render graphics in real time in on-board devices. “To offer our customers the best possible user experience and contribute to safe and personal driving, we need a rich, engaging and responsive visualization inside our cars,” explained Henrik Green , Volvo's Chief Product Officer. Cars. "Using the Unreal Engine in our cars achieves this and makes spending time inside a Volvo even more enjoyable."
To date, the Swedish manufacturer is the first automotive player from the Old Continent to use Unreal Engine for the development of the human-machine interface (HMI). In particular, they say from Gothenburg, at first the partnership will focus on the Driver Information Module (DIM), one of the displays inside the passenger compartment that provides the driver with relevant information and infotainment functions.
In the next generation of Volvo cars, customers will find the crisp renders, colors and 3D animations that have truly made Epic Games a giant when it comes to engines on the onboard displays of the third generation Snapdragon Cockpit platforms. videogame. And if you have any doubts, just go through the technical demos of the latest Unreal Engine to virtually understand what can be done with that software.
OTHER THAN PERFORMANCE, INFOTAINMENT IS THE KEYWORD
At one time, the dealer inquired about the horses trampling under the hood. Today, in a period of austerity, petrol at its peak and maximum proximity to environmental issues, no one wants to know how many cylinders the engine has.
For this reason, more and more manufacturers are betting on the fact that, in the immediate future, the infotainment system will be decisive for the purchase: the first to go in this direction was Tesla by the visionary Elon Musk , actually opening the way , then the Honda cars with Sony software will arrive, compatible even with PlayStation video games and now Volvo Cars promises an on-board computer twice as fast as its predecessor, while the generation of graphics and processing inside the cockpit will be up ten times more efficient.
The first car to feature the new graphics will be the all-electric flagship Volvo Cars will unveil later this year. This model is particularly important to Swedes as it will be the first in a new generation of all-electric cars from Volvo, which aims to sell only 100% EV cars by 2030.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/smartcity/perche-volvo-ha-deciso-di-allearsi-con-epic-games-di-fortnite/ on Wed, 01 Jun 2022 11:05:32 +0000.