Epic Games to launch achievements and new XR project

Epic Games today announced it’s adding achievements to some of the games in the Epic Games Store, starting next week. It’s also announced that it was rolling out an augmented reality version of its Project Anywhere proof of concept to Microsoft HoloLens 2.

Achievements, or the acknowledgement of an in-game accomplishment, have been so thoroughly integrated into modern gaming practice that the Epic Game Store felt incomplete without them. Now they’re on their way, and players who get them will be granted certain rewards, though Epic warns that it’ll take a while before they roll out for all of the games on the EGS.

The achievements will follow the PlayStation rarity scale: Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum. Earning a trophy will give the player XP, with the amount depending on the metal of the trophy. Players earn the Platinum by getting 1,000 XP from other achievements. Starting next week, players can earn achievements in Rocket League, Hades, Pillars of Eternity, Kena, Zombie Army 4, Alan Wake Remastered, “and more.”

Epic had previously added “developer achievements” to games, which it says were “fully owned and operated by developers.” This new system is fully integrated with the Store, however, and offers benefits to the player via the XP system. Epic notes that players who have previously unlocked developer achievements will automatically get the relevant XP.

In addition to the above, Epic also announced that it was bringing Project Anywhere, its cloud-based real-time environment simulation proof-of-concept, to XR via the Microsoft HoloLens 2. Project Anywhere XR uses Microsoft’s Mixed Reality Toolkit for Unreal to allow users to move about the simulation, zoom in, and teleport, with the visual detail streamed automatically from various different sources.

Project Anywhere XR will be demonstrated at the upcoming GEOINT Symposium this week. Epic is also offering it to users for free as an Unreal Engine sample project.