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UNIGINE 1 had support for large virtual scenarios and specific hardware required by professional simulators and enterprise VR systems, often called serious games.
Support for large virtual worlds was implemented via double precision of coordinates (64-bit per axis),[12] zone-based background data streaming,[13] and optional operations in geographic coordinate system (latitude, longitude, and elevation instead of X, Y, Z).[14]
Display output was implemented via multi-channel rendering (network-synchronized image generation of a single large image with several computers),[15] which typical for professional simulators.[16] The same system enabled support of multiple output devices with asymmetric projections (e.g. CAVE). Curved screens with multiple projectors were also supported.[17] UNIGINE 1 had stereoscopic output support for anaglyph rendering, separate images output, Nvidia 3D Vision, and virtual reality headsets. It also supported multi-monitor output.[18]
UNIGINE rendered supported Shader model 5.0 with hardware tessellation, DirectCompute, and OpenCL. It also used screen space ambient occlusion and real-time global illumination. UNIGINE used a proprietary physics engine to process events such as collision detection, rigid body physics, and dynamical destruction of objects. It also used a proprietary engine for path finding and basic AI components. UNIGINE had features such as interactive 3D GUI, video playback using Theora codec, 3D audio system based on OpenAL library, WYSIWYG scene editor (UNIGINE Editor).
UNIGINE 2 has all features from UNIGINE 1 and transitioned from forward rendering to deferred rendering approach, PBR shading, and introduced new graphical technologies like geometry water, multi-layered volumetric clouds, SSRTGI and voxel-based lighting.[19]
UNIGINE 2 also supports the following graphical APIs: DirectX 11, OpenGL 4.x. Since version 2.16 UNIGINE experimentally supports DirectX 12 and Vulkan.
There are 3 APIs for developers: C++, C#, Unigine Script.
Proprietary SSRTGI (Screen Space Ray-Traced Global Illumination) rendering technology was introduced in version 2.5.[21] It was presented at SIGGRAPH 2017 Real-Time Live! event.[22]
The roots of UNIGINE are in the frustum.org open source project,[23] which was initiated in 2002 by Alexander "Frustum" Zapryagaev, who is a co-founder (along with Denis Shergin, CEO) and ex-CTO of UNIGINE Company.
On November 25, 2010, UNIGINE Company announced a competition to support Linux game development. They agreed to give away a free license of the UNIGINE engine to anyone willing to develop and release a game with a Linux native client, and would also grant the team a Windows license.[24] The competition ran until December 10, 2010, with a considerable number of entries being submitted. Due to the unexpected response, UNIGINE decided to extend the offer to the three best applicants, with each getting full UNIGINE licenses.[25] The winners were announced on December 13, 2010, with the developers selected being Kot-in-Action Creative Artel (who previously developed Steel Storm), Gamepulp (who intend to make a puzzle platform), and MED-ART (who previously worked on Painkiller: Resurrection).[26]
As of 2021, company claimed to have more than 250 B2B customers worldwide.[27]
Some companies that develop software for professional aircraft, ships & vehicle simulators use UNIGINE Engine as a base for the 3D & VR visualization.[28][29][30]
UNIGINE Engine is used as a platform for a series of benchmarks,[66] which can be used to determine the stability of PC hardware (CPU, GPU, power supply, cooling system) under extremely stressful conditions, as well as for overclocking:
