Unreal Engine is one of many engines and toolkits we work in, and we come at it as graphics and simulation engineers, not a game studio. We bring the same pipeline-level discipline we bring to raw OpenGL, Vulkan, and scene graphs, plus the defense, geospatial, and simulation domain knowledge those projects actually need. We do not sell an engine, so when Unreal is the right tool we will build it well, and when it is not we will tell you.
What we build in Unreal
C++ engine and gameplay programming, custom plugins and modules, editor tooling, and the rendering work most teams avoid: materials, Niagara, custom render passes, and profiling. We also work in the parts of Unreal that are actually C++, not only Blueprint, so we can extend the engine itself when a project needs behavior the templates do not provide. We can build plugins and extensions for you.
Whole-planet terrain and geospatial
We stream real-world terrain and imagery into Unreal with Cesium for Unreal, putting whole-earth geospatial data and space-scale scenes inside the engine at correct global precision. It is the same terrain problem we solve in our scene-graph work, brought into Unreal.
Simulation, training, and sand tables
We have built a VR sand table in Unreal for a defense customer: a shared 3D common strategic operating picture driven by an external simulation, not a scripted demo. That is the kind of visual simulation and VR and AR work Unreal is genuinely good at, and where our defense-simulation background matters as much as the engine skills.
Perception and sensors
A game engine is not usually wired to the real world. We connect computer vision, depth cameras, and live sensor and telemetry data into Unreal scenes, so what the engine draws reflects what a sensor actually sees, for training, analysis, and mixed reality.
VR and AR
We build immersive VR and AR in Unreal through OpenXR, targeting the headsets and displays our XR clients actually use, with the frame-rate discipline that keeps a headset comfortable rather than nauseating. We've worked extensively with the VARJO and Meta Quest (2, Pro and 3) headsets, and the Oculus products before Meta.
Should I use Unreal, or a scene graph?
The correct answer depends on your specific needs. Unreal gives you an editor, a material and lighting pipeline, and a large asset ecosystem out of the box. A scene graph like OpenSceneGraph or VulkanSceneGraph gives you a lean, embeddable, fully-owned rendering core with no license entanglements, which is often what safety-critical, embedded, and long-lived defense programs need. We build in all of them, and we routinely bridge Unreal to an existing OpenSceneGraph or C++ pipeline a program already depends on. Because we have no engine to sell, our recommendation is based on your constraints, not our catalog and sales targets.
Who works on it
AlphaPixel is a US-owned small business, founded in 2004, with senior developers who each have decades in real-time 3D and simulation. DLA DD2345 / ITAR registered. We take closed-source defense work and open source alike, and we do not sell an engine, so our advice is not a sales pitch for one.
Talk to us
Tell us what you’re building and where it’s stuck. We’ll tell you straight whether it’s something we can help with, and how we’d approach it.
Or see how we run consulting and software development engagements.
