Virteasy on Unreal Engine

Virteasy Dental has received financing from EPIC Mega Grants to develop Virteasy on the Unreal Engine and also in virtual reality (VR).

James Markey, head of Sales and product owner for Virteasy said: “This is a huge day not only for Virteasy but also for haptic and VR simulation in dentistry in general. A huge sign of confidence in the growing market of advanced haptic simulation within universities could offer unbelievable benefits for both existing and new customers of Virteasy Dental.

By combining our existing haptic skills and software withthe power of Unreal, (it) will really open up the potential for our dentalsimulator, and all existing clients will benefit from this. Furthermore, if ourdevelopments continue to progress this well with the virtual reality headsets,this could open up Virteasy to new markets and make dental haptic simulationmuch more widely accessible.

The Mega Grant not only gives us much welcome finance totake advantage of Unreal as our new engine, but gives us access to contactswithin Epic Games who have been incredibly helpful in supporting us tointegrating haptic devices and the sense of touch into the virtual world.”

The company’s first prototype (which has been in stealthmode) was shown to a closed audience of dentists in Rouen, France. The firstpublic demo will be at ADEE in Berlin during August.

If this project is successful, the company will be able toupdate Virteasy simulators with enhanced lights/shadows for increased depthperception, an upgraded virtual scene, a new virtual patient, interactions withinthe scene (change the inclination of the dental chair, move the patient lightetc.), and customisation of the virtual patient to match the real patient whosescans are being used.