Unreal Engine

Video game engine developed by Epic Games

Unreal Engine

Logo of Unreal Engine with a new typeface

Screenshot of Unreal Engine 4.20

Original author(s)| Tim Sweeney
Developer(s)| Epic Games
Stable release|

5.6

Written in| C++
Operating system| Windows, Linux, macOS
License| Source-available commercial software with royalty model for commercial use[1]
Website| unrealengine.com

Unreal Engine (UE) is a 3D computer graphics game engine developed by Epic Games, first showcased in the 1998 first-person shooter video game Unreal. Initially developed for PC first-person shooters, it has since been used in a variety of genres of games and has been adopted by other industries, most notably the film and television industry. Unreal Engine is written in C++ and features a high degree of portability, supporting a wide range of desktop, mobiles, console, and virtual reality platforms.

The latest generation, Unreal Engine 5, was launched in April 2022.[2] Its source code is available on GitHub, and commercial use is granted based on a royalty model, with Epic charging 5% of revenues over US $1 million, which is waived for games published exclusively on the Epic Games Store. Epic has incorporated features in the engine from acquired companies such as Quixel, which is seen as benefiting from Fortnite's revenue.

## History

[edit]

Release timeline1998| Unreal Engine 1

|

1999–2000
2001| Unreal Engine 2
2002–2005
2006| Unreal Engine 3
2007–2013
2014| Unreal Engine 4
2015–2021
2022| Unreal Engine 5
TBA| Unreal Engine 6

### First generation

[edit]

Main article: Unreal Engine 1

Unreal Engine 1 was initially developed in 1995 by Epic Games founder Tim Sweeney for Unreal and used software rendering. It supported Windows, Linux, Mac and Unix. Epic later began to license the Engine to other game studios.

### Unreal Engine 2

[edit]

Main article: Unreal Engine 2

Unreal Engine 2 transitioned the engine from software rendering to hardware rendering and brought support for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and GameCube consoles. The first game using UE2 was released in 2002 and its last update was shipped in 2005.

### Unreal Engine 3

[edit]

Main article: Unreal Engine 3

Unreal Engine 3 was one of the first game engines to support multithreading. It used DirectX 9 as its baseline graphics API, simplifying its rendering code. The first games using UE3 were released at the end of 2006.

### Unreal Engine 4

[edit]

Main article: Unreal Engine 4

Unreal Engine 4 brought support for physically based materials and the "Blueprints" visual scripting system. The first game using UE4 was released in April 2014. It was the first version of Unreal to be free to download with royalty payments on game revenue.

### Unreal Engine 5

[edit]

Main article: Unreal Engine 5

Unreal Engine 5 features Nanite, a virtualized geometry system that allows game developers to use arbitrarily high quality meshes with automatically generated Level of Detail, and Lumen, a dynamic global illumination and reflections system that uses software and hardware ray tracing. It was revealed in May 2020 and officially released in April 2022.

### Unreal Engine 6

[edit]

Sweeney discussed Unreal Engine 6 on the Lex Fridman podcast in 2025, and indicated that the first preview builds would be available in two to three years. The next version will aim to unify the currently separate development streams used for Fortnite and the broader engine.[3]

## Scripting

[edit]

### UnrealScript

[edit]

UnrealScript

Paradigm| Object-oriented, generic
Developer| Tim Sweeney
First appeared| May 1998; 27 years ago (May 1998)
Typing discipline| Static, strong, safe
OS| Cross-platform (multi-platform)
Filename extensions| .uc .uci .upkg
Website| docs.unrealengine.com
Influenced by
C++, Java

UnrealScript (often abbreviated to UScript) was Unreal Engine's native scripting language used for authoring game code and gameplay events before the release of Unreal Engine 4. The language was designed for simple, high-level game programming.[4] UnrealScript was programmed by Tim Sweeney,[5] who also created an earlier game scripting language, ZZT-OOP.[6] Deus Ex lead programmer Chris Norden described it as "super flexible" but noted its low execution speed.[7]

Similar to Java, UnrealScript was object-oriented without multiple inheritance (classes all inherit from a common Object class), and classes were defined in individual files named for the class they define. Unlike Java, UnrealScript did not have object wrappers for primitive types. Interfaces were only supported in Unreal Engine generation 3 and a few Unreal Engine 2 games. UnrealScript supported operator overloading, but not method overloading, except for optional parameters.

At the 2012 Game Developers Conference, Epic announced that UnrealScript was being removed from Unreal Engine 4 in favor of C++.[8] Visual scripting would be supported by the Blueprints Visual Scripting system, a replacement for the earlier Kismet visual scripting system.[9][10]

> One of the key moments in Unreal Engine 4's development was, we had a series of debates about UnrealScript – the scripting language I'd built that we'd carried through three generations. And what we needed to do to make it competitive in the future. And we kept going through bigger and bigger feature lists of what we needed to do to upgrade it, and who could possibly do the work, and it was getting really, really unwieldy. And there was this massive meeting to try and sort it out, and try to cut things and decide what to keep, and plan and...there was this point where I looked at that and said 'you know, everything you're proposing to add to UnrealScript is already in C++. Why don't we just kill UnrealScript and move to pure C++? You know, maximum performance and maximum debuggability. It gives us all these advantages.'

— Sweeney, Gamasutra, 2017[11]

### Verse

[edit]

Verse is the new scripting language for Unreal Engine, first implemented in Fortnite.[12] Simon Peyton Jones, known for his contributions to the Haskell programming language, joined Epic Games in December 2021 as Engineering Fellow to work on Verse with his long-time colleague Lennart Augustsson and others.[13] Conceived by Sweeney,[14] it was officially presented at Haskell eXchange in December 2022 as an open source functional-logic language for the metaverse.[15] A research paper, titled The Verse Calculus: a Core Calculus for Functional Logic Programming, was also published.[16]

The language was eventually launched in March 2023 as part of the release of the Unreal Editor for Fortnite (UEFN) at the Game Developers Conference, with plans to be available to all Unreal Engine users by 2025.[12]

## Marketplace

[edit]

With Unreal Engine 4, Epic opened the Unreal Engine Marketplace in September 2014. The Marketplace is a digital storefront that allows content creators and developers to provide art assets, models, sounds, environments, code snippets, and other features that others could purchase, along with tutorials and other guides. Some content is provided for free by Epic, including previously offered Unreal assets and tutorials.[17] Prior to July 2018, Epic took a 30% share of the sales but due to the success of Unreal and Fortnite Battle Royale, Epic retroactively reduced its take to 12%.[18]

## Usage

[edit]

### Video games

[edit]

Unreal Engine was originally designed to be used as the underlying technology for video games. The engine is used in a number of high-profile game titles with high graphics capabilities, including Hogwarts Legacy,[19] PUBG: Battlegrounds, Final Fantasy VII Remake, Valorant and Yoshi's Crafted World, in addition to games developed by Epic, including Gears of War and Fortnite.[20][21][22] Polish game developer CD Projekt is also planning to use the engine after retiring their in-house REDengine; their first game to use Unreal will be a remake of The Witcher.[23][24][25][26]

Usage of Unreal Engine has been steadily increasing since 2012, from an estimated 17% market share to 28% in 2024, compared to Unity's 50%.[27] By sales, Unreal accounts for 31% compared to Unity's 26%, with proprietary engines accounting for a combined 42%, making Unreal the largest engine by units sold.[27]

### Film and television

[edit]

Unreal Engine has found use in filmmaking to create virtual sets that can track with a camera's motion around actors and objects and be rendered in real time to large LED screens and atmospheric lighting systems. This allows for real-time composition of shots, immediate editing of the virtual sets as needed, and the ability to shoot multiple scenes within a short period by just changing the virtual world behind the actors. The overall appearance was recognized to appear more natural than typical chromakey effects.

External videos

Industrial Light & Magic - The Virtual Production of The Mandalorian

Among the productions to use these technologies were the live action television series The Mandalorian, Westworld and Fallout,[28] and the animated series Zafari, Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir (as from its sixth season) and Super Giant Robot Brothers. Jon Favreau and Lucasfilm's Industrial Light & Magic division worked with Epic in developing their StageCraft technology for The Mandalorian, based on a similar approach Favreau had used in The Lion King.[29][30][31][32][33] Favreau then shared this technology approach with Westworld producers Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy. The show had already looked at the use of virtual sets before and had some technology established, but integrated the use of Unreal Engine as with StageCraft for its third season.[34][35]

Orca Studios, a Spanish-based company, has been working with Epic to establish multiple studios for virtual filming similar to the StageCraft approach with Unreal Engine providing the virtual sets, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, which restricted travel.[36]

In January 2021, Deadline Hollywood announced that Epic was using part of its Epic MegaGrants to back for the first time an animated feature film, Gilgamesh, to be produced fully in Unreal Engine by animation studios Hook Up, DuermeVela and FilmSharks.[37] As part of an extension of its MegaGrants, Epic also funded 45 additional projects since around 2020 for producing feature-length and short films in the Unreal Engine.[38] By October 2022, Epic was working with several different groups at over 300 virtual sets across the world.[39] Unreal Engine was used for motion capture in Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile.[40]

### Other uses

[edit]

Unreal Engine has also been used by non-creative fields due to its availability and feature sets. It has been used as a basis for a virtual reality tool to explore pharmaceutical drug molecules in collaboration with other researchers, as a virtual environment to explore and design new buildings and automobiles, and used for cable news networks to support real-time graphics.[41] Some car companies, most prominently including Rivian, use Unreal Engine in their infotainment systems.[42]

In March 2012, Epic Games announced a partnership with Virtual Heroes of Applied Research Associates to launch Unreal Government Network, a program that handles Unreal Engine licenses for government agencies.[43] Several projects originated with this support agreement, including an anaesthesiology training software for U.S. Army physicians, a multiplayer crime scene simulation developed by the FBI Academy, and various applications for the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity with the aim to help intelligence analysts recognize and mitigate cognitive biases that might affect their work.[44][45] Similarly, the DHS Science and Technology Directorate and the U.S. Army's Training and Doctrine Command and Research Laboratory employed the engine to develop a platform to train first responders titled Enhanced Dynamic Geo-Social Environment (EDGE).[46]

## Awards

[edit]

The engine has received numerous awards:

* Technology & Engineering Emmy Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) for "3D Engine Software for the Production of Animation" in 2018[47]
* Primetime Engineering Emmy Award from the Television Academy for exceptional developments in broadcast technology in 2020[48]
* Annie Award from ASIFA-Hollywood for technical advancement in animation in 2021[49]
* Game Developer Magazine Front Line Award for Best Game Engine for 2004,[50] 2005,[51] 2006,[52] 2007,[53] 2009,[54] 2010,[55] 2011,[56] and 2012[57]
* Develop Industry Excellence Award for Best Engine for 2009,[58] 2010,[59] 2011,[60] 2013,[61] 2016,[62] 2017,[63] and 2018[64]
* Guinness World Record for most successful video game engine in 2014.[65]

## Legal aspects

[edit]

See also: Epic Games v. Apple

The state of the Unreal Engine came up in Epic's 2020 legal action against Apple Inc. claiming anticompetitive behavior in Apple's iOS App Store. Epic had uploaded a version of Fortnite that violated Apple's App Store allowances. Apple, in response, removed the Fortnite app and later threatened to terminate Epic's developer accounts which would have prevented Epic from updating the Unreal Engine for iOS and macOS.[66] The court agreed to grant Epic a permanent injunction against Apple to prevent Apple from taking this step, since the court agreed that would impact numerous third-party developers that rely on the Unreal Engine.[67]

## See also

[edit]

* Category:Unreal Engine games
* Procedural generation
* Make Something Unreal
* Epic Citadel
* The Matrix Awakens
* On-set virtual production
* Uncanny valley
* Unity (game engine)
* List of game engines

## References

[edit]

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28. ^ The VFX of ‘Fallout’: shooting on an LED volume on film, crafting one-eyed digital humans, mixing practical and digital, and more
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## Further reading

[edit]

* Kosak, Dave. "Talking with Tim Sweeney about the evolution of a game engine". GameSpy. Archived from the original on June 21, 2001. Retrieved June 21, 2001.
* Buecheler, Christopher. "Tim Sweeney discusses the Unreal Engine". GameSpy. Archived from the original on June 21, 2001. Retrieved June 21, 2001.
* Keighley, Geoffrey. "Blinded By Reality: The True Story Behind the Creation of Unreal". GameSpot. Archived from the original on May 19, 2001.
* Herz, J.C (December 2, 1999). "GAME THEORY; For Game Maker, There's Gold in the Code". The New York Times. Archived from the original on September 19, 2017. Retrieved December 20, 2017.
* Thomsen, Mike (February 2010). "History of the Unreal Engine". IGN. Archived from the original on July 12, 2017. Retrieved February 3, 2015.
* Bullis, Kevin (November 2011). "Epic Games Finds New Customers". MIT Technology Review. Archived from the original on May 2, 2019. Retrieved August 12, 2017.
* Horvath, Stu (May 2012). "The Imagination Engine: Why Next-Gen Videogames Will Rock Your World". Wired.
* Totilo, Stephen (June 2012). "How Unreal Engine 4 Will Change The Next Games You Play". Kotaku. Archived from the original on December 21, 2017. Retrieved December 19, 2017.
* Steiner, Brian (June 2013). "How The Unreal Engine Became A Real Gaming Powerhouse". Popular Mechanics. Archived from the original on April 27, 2021. Retrieved February 6, 2015.
* Harrington, Richard (November 2016). "The game is on: automotive product development in a new virtual world". Automotive World. Archived from the original on August 16, 2017. Retrieved August 16, 2017.
* Gaudiosi, John (March 2017). "Epic Games' Unreal Engine Is Opening Enterprise Business Doors In Automotive, And Other Industries". [a]listdaily. Archived from the original on June 23, 2022. Retrieved August 16, 2017.
* Batchelor, James (April 2017). "Sweeney: 'The future of the games industry? Make everyone a creator'". GamesIndustry.biz. Archived from the original on April 27, 2021. Retrieved August 30, 2017.
* Leif, Johnson (November 2017). "How Unreal Tournament mods created a wave of successful indie studios". PC Gamer.
* Yee, Erica (December 2018). "The real reason Epic landed a $15 billion valuation is not Fortnite's viral video game success". CNBC. Archived from the original on November 9, 2021. Retrieved December 21, 2018.
* Alba, Michael (March 2020). "Unreal Engineering: How a Game Engine is Playing in New Industries". Engineering.com. Archived from the original on November 17, 2020. Retrieved November 15, 2020.

Portals:

* Computer programming
* Video games

Links to related articles

* v
* t
* e

Unreal series

Epic Games

Main series|

* Unreal
* II: The Awakening

Tournament|

* Tournament
* "Facing Worlds"
* Tournament 2003
* Tournament 2004
* Tournament 3
* Tournament (cancelled)

Championship|

* Championship
* Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict

People|

* Bob Bates
* Cliff Bleszinski
* Alexander Brandon
* Sjoerd De Jong
* Sascha Dikiciyan
* Dan Gardopée
* Steve Polge
* Mark Rein
* Kevin Riepl
* Andrew Sega
* Skaven
* Tim Sweeney
* Michiel van den Bos

Companies|

* Digital Extremes
* Legend Entertainment
* Psyonix
* Streamline Studios

Related|

* Unreal Engine
* Make Something Unreal
* Secret Level

* Category

* v
* t
* e

Epic Games

List of games

Games
developed|

| Jazz Jackrabbit|

* Jazz Jackrabbit
* Jazz Jackrabbit 2

|

Unreal|

* Unreal
* Tournament (1999)
* "Facing Worlds"
* Tournament 2003
* Championship
* Tournament 2004
* Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict
* Tournament 3
* Tournament§

Gears of War|

* Gears of War
* Gears of War 2
* Gears of War 3
* Gears of War: Judgment

Infinity Blade|

* Infinity Blade
* Infinity Blade II
* Infinity Blade III

Fortnite|

* Save the World
* Battle Royale
* "Tilted Towers"
* "Peely"
* Creative
* "Fortnite Holocaust Museum"
* Lego Fortnite
* Rocket Racing
* Fortnite Festival

Other|

* ZZT
* Jill of the Jungle
* Kiloblaster
* Silverball
* Xargon
* Extreme Pinball
* 7th Legion
* Age of Wonders
* Shadow Complex
* Bulletstorm
* Robo Recall
* Paragon§
* The Matrix Awakens

Third-party
publishing|

| Epic
MegaGames|

* Castle of the Winds
* Brix
* Electro Man
* Ken's Labyrinth
* Ancients 1: Death Watch
* Solar Winds
* Zone 66
* The Adventures of Robbo
* Epic Pinball
* Heartlight
* Highway Hunter
* One Must Fall: 2097
* Traffic Department 2192
* Radix: Beyond the Void
* Tyrian
* Seek and Destroy

|

Epic Games
Publishing|

* Fall Guys
* Kid A Mnesia Exhibition
* PC Building Simulator 2
* Rumbleverse
* Alan Wake II

Technology|

* Unreal Engine
* 1
* 2
* 3
* 4
* 5
* UEFN
* Verse
* Epic Citadel
* Epic Games Store
* Houseparty
* Sketchfab
* Bink Video

Subsidiaries|

| Current|

* Chair Entertainment
* Cloudgine
* Harmonix
* Psyonix
* Mediatonic

|

Former|

* Impossible Studios
* Titan Studios
* Pitbull Studio
* People Can Fly
* Bandcamp

People|

| Current|

* Tim Sweeney
* Mark Rein
* Steve Polge
* Sjoerd De Jong

|

Former|

* Cliff Bleszinski
* Mike Capps
* Rod Fergusson
* Donald Mustard

Related|

* Make Something Unreal
* Fortnite World Cup
* Epic Games v. Apple
* Epic Games v. Google
* Coalition for App Fairness

* § Cancelled games
* Category

* v
* t
* e

Game engines (list)

* Source port
* First-person shooter engine
* List of first-person shooter engines
* Game engine recreation
* List of game engine recreations
* Game creation system
* Game IDE
* List of visual novel engines
* id Tech

Proprietary|

| 1980s|

* Adventure Game Interpreter
* Cobra
* Filmation
* Freescape
* Gold Box
* Sierra Creative Interpreter
* SCUMM

|

1990s|

* 3D GameStudio
* Clickteam
* Dark Engine
* GameMaker
* Genie Engine
* GoldSrc
* Jedi
* LithTech
* Mugen
* Pie in the Sky
* Reality Lab
* RenderWare
* RPG Maker
* Sim RPG Maker
* Unreal Engine 1
* Virtools
* Virtual Theatre
* Voxel Space
* Zillions of Games

2000s|

* Anvil
* C4 Engine
* CryEngine
* Crystal Tools
* Euphoria
* Flare3D
* Frostbite
* Gamebryo
* GameSalad
* HeroEngine
* IW
* Leadwerks
* Marmalade
* MT Framework
* PhyreEngine
* Q
* RAGE
* Shark 3D
* Source
* Titan
* Unigine
* Unity
* Unreal Engine 2
* Unreal Engine 3
* Virtools 2.5
* Vicious Engine
* Vision
* Visual3D Game Engine

2010s|

* 4A Engine
* Amazon Lumberyard
* Bitsquid
* Buildbox
* Construct
* Creation Engine
* Decima
* Defold
* Felgo
* ForgeLight
* Fox Engine
* id Tech 5
* id Tech 6
* Ignite
* Luminous Engine
* Pixel Game Maker MV
* RE Engine
* Snowdrop
* Stencyl
* Source 2
* UbiArt Framework
* Unreal Engine 4

2020s|

* id Tech 7
* Unreal Engine 5
* S&box

Free and
open-source|

| 1970s|

* Z-machine

|

1990s|

* Adventure Game Studio
* Build
* Crystal Space
* Doom engine
* Game-Maker
* OHRRPGCE
* Quake engine
* Quake II engine
* Stratagus

2000s|

* Away3D
* Blender Game Engine
* Bork3D Game Engine
* Cocos2d
* Dim3
* Game Editor
* GDevelop
* id Tech 3
* id Tech 4
* Irrlicht Engine
* jMonkeyEngine
* Lightweight Java Game Library
* Löve
* OGRE
* Open Wonderland
* Panda3D
* Papervision3D
* Plasma
* Platinum Arts Sandbox
* Pygame
* Ren'Py
* Scratch
* Solar2D
* Thousand Parsec
* Torque
* Vassal Engine
* Wintermute Engine

2010s|

* Delta3D
* Godot
* GPUOpen
* Horde3D
* libGDX
* Moai
* OpenFL
* ORX
* PlayCanvas
* Raylib
* Snap!
* Stencyl
* Stride

2020s|

* Open 3D Engine

* v
* t
* e

Extended reality (XR)

* From least to most virtual: Augmented reality (AR)
* Mixed reality (MR)
* Virtual reality (VR)
* Virtuality

Concepts|

| Main|

* Cinematic virtual reality
* Computer-mediated reality
* Immersion
* Metaverse
* Avatar
* Projection augmented model
* "Room-scale"
* Six degrees of freedom (6DoF)
* Spatial computing
* Telepresence
* Virtual reality applications
* Virtual reality sickness
* Virtual world

|

Other|

* Camera filter
* Quantified self
* Screen-door effect
* Simulation hypothesis
* Transhumanism
* Vergence-accommodation conflict
* VTuber

Technologies|

| Display|

* EyeTap
* Head-mounted display
* optical
* Head-up display
* Pancake lens
* Smartglasses
* Virtual reality headset
* list
* Virtual retinal display

|

3D interaction|

* Brain–computer interface
* Eye tracking
* Facial motion capture
* Finger/hand tracking
* Pose tracking
* Simultaneous localization and mapping

Software|

* Asynchronous reprojection
* Foveated rendering
* Image-based modeling and rendering
* Spatial audio

Photography|

* 360-degree video
* Free viewpoint television
* Omnidirectional (360-degree) camera
* VR photography

Other|

* Haptic suit
* Omnidirectional treadmill
* Wearable computer

Peripherals|

* Cyberith Virtualizer
* Leap Motion
* Oculus Touch
* PlayStation Move
* Razer Hydra
* Virtuix Omni
* Wired glove
* Wizdish ROVR

Companies|

* Apple Inc.
* Brilliant Labs
* ByteDance
* Collabora
* Google
* HTC
* Khronos Group
* Liquid Image
* Magic Leap
* Meta Platforms
* Reality Labs
* Microsoft
* Niantic, Inc.
* Pimax
* Rokoko
* Samsung Electronics
* Valve Corporation
* Varjo
* Vuzix

Devices|

| Current|

* Apple Vision Pro
* Bigscreen Beyond
* Golden-i headsets
* HTC Vive
* Magic Leap
* Meta Quest 3
* 3S
* Open Source Virtual Reality
* PICO 4 Ultra
* Pimax
* PlayStation VR2
* Valve Index
* Vuzix

|

Former|

* AntVR
* castAR
* EyePhone
* Google Cardboard
* Google Daydream
* Google Glass
* Meta Quest Pro
* Microsoft HoloLens
* 2
* Oculus Go
* Oculus Quest
* Oculus/Meta Quest 2
* Oculus Rift
* CV1
* S
* PICO 4
* PlayStation VR
* Samsung Gear VR
* Sensorama
* SixthSense
* The Sword of Damocles
* VFX1 Headgear
* Virtual Boy
* Virtual fixture
* Virtuality
* VR-1

Unreleased|

* Project Iris
* Sega VR

Software|

| General|

* Interactive art
* Virtual graffiti
* Metaverse
* Pervasive game
* Software related to augmented reality
* Virtual reality game

|

Operating systems and
desktop environments|

* Android XR
* Meta Horizon OS
* version history
* visionOS
* Windows Mixed Reality

Development tools and
game engines|

* A-Frame
* ARCore
* ARKit
* ARToolKit
* Godot Engine
* Jetpack Compose XR
* Meta Spatial SDK
* OpenVR
* OpenXR
* RealityKit
* S&box
* TabletopKit
* Unity
* Universal Scene Description
* Unreal Engine
* Vuforia Augmented Reality SDK
* WebXR

Games|

* List of HTC Vive games
* List of Meta Quest games
* List of Oculus Rift games
* List of PlayStation VR games
* VR2

Communities and
social networks|

* AltspaceVR
* FaceTime for visionOS
* Horizon Worlds
* NeosVR
* Rec Room
* Resonite
* Sansar
* Sensorium
* Sinespace
* VRChat
* VTime XR

People|

* Philippe Bekaert
* Maurice Benayoun
* Simon Birrell
* Mark Bolas
* Brendan Bradley
* Fred Brooks
* Boštjan Burger
* John Carmack
* Tim Cook
* Carolina Cruz-Neira
* Ela Darling
* Char Davies
* Thomas A. DeFanti
* Steven K. Feiner
* Scott Fisher
* Jerome Foster II
* Henry Fuchs
* Thomas A. Furness III
* Morton Heilig
* Eric Howlett
* Brendan Iribe
* Myron W. Krueger
* Jaron Lanier
* R. Bowen Loftin
* Palmer Luckey
* Mark Stephen Meadows
* Michelle and Uri Kranot
* Tony Parisi
* Nonny de la Peña
* Elia Petridis
* Warren Robinett
* Lawrence J. Rosenblum
* Daniel J. Sandin
* Dieter Schmalstieg
* Bob Sproull
* Nicole Stenger
* Ivan Sutherland
* Susumu Tachi
* Gunpei Yokoi
* Mark Zuckerberg

In fiction|

* Attack of the Killer App (Futurama Episode)
* Holodeck (Star Trek)
* Netrunner
* Neuromancer
* Ready Player One
* film
* Ready Player Two
* Snow Crash
* Superhot
* Sword Art Online
* The Matrix

* Portals
* Technology
* Category
* Augmented reality
* Mixed reality
* Virtual reality
* Metaverse
* Spatial computing
* Commons
* Augmented reality
* Mixed reality
* Virtual reality
* Metaverse

*[TBA]: To be announced
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