Glossary
Digital Asset Management (DAM): Systems used to store, organise, and retrieve rich media like 3D models, textures, renders, and animations.
Digital Twins: Digital replicas of physical objects or systems that are used to simulate, monitor, and optimise real-world performance.
DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling): NVIDIA’s AI-powered rendering technique that boosts frame rates and image quality by generating high-resolution frames from lower-resolution inputs.
DWG: A proprietary CAD file format used for storing two- and three-dimensional design data and metadata.
DWF / DXF: File formats used for CAD drawings — DWF for design visualisation and DXF for data exchange between CAD programs.
Dynamic Lighting: Real-time lighting that reacts to scene changes, movement, or environmental factors, enhancing realism in immersive experiences.
Epic Games: The powerhouse behind Unreal Engine, known for driving real-time 3D innovation in gaming, architecture, film, and beyond. If you’re doing high-end visualisation, you’re probably using their tools.
Environment Occlusion: A technique used in AR/VR that blocks or hides digital objects behind real-world geometry for realistic depth interaction. It’s what separates gimmicky AR from convincing AR.
Extended Reality (XR): An umbrella term that encompasses all immersive technologies—including Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), and Mixed Reality (MR)—blending digital and physical environments for interactive experiences.
Face Tracking: Technology that detects and maps facial features in real time — critical for facial animation, filters, and user interaction in AR/VR.
FBX: A popular 3D file format that stores complex geometry, animation, and lighting data — widely used across modelling, animation, and game engines.
FOV (Field of View): The observable area a user sees through a display or headset. A wider FOV creates deeper immersion, while a narrow one kills it.
Frame Generation is an AI-powered technology that creates additional frames between rendered frames to increase frame rates and improve visual smoothness. It enhances performance through AI-based frame prediction and synthesis.
Frame Rate: The number of frames displayed per second (FPS), determining the smoothness of motion in video or interactive media.
FSR (FidelityFX Super Resolution): AMD’s image upscaling technology that enhances performance by rendering at lower resolutions and upscaling with minimal loss in visual quality.
Gamification: The use of game design elements (points, challenges, feedback loops) in non-game environments to boost engagement and retention.
Gaussian Splatting is a 3D rendering technique that reconstructs real-world scenes from photographs using millions of Gaussian points. It enables highly realistic, photorealistic visualisations with faster rendering and lower computational requirements than traditional 3D reconstruction methods.
GLB / GLTF: Lightweight, efficient 3D file formats for delivering assets on the web or in AR — if you’re doing web-based 3D, you must be using these.
Global Illumination: A rendering method that simulates how light bounces off surfaces — the difference between flat and lifelike visuals.
Google Analytics: A web analytics service that tracks and reports website traffic and user behaviour. When integrated into immersive platforms, it helps quantify engagement.
Holobox: A transparent display or box that creates the illusion of a floating 3D hologram, used for exhibitions, retail, or interactive product demos.
Hosting Server: A system or cloud service that stores and delivers digital content, including websites, apps, and 3D/AR experiences, to users via the internet.
Human (UE5): Realistic digital human models created or animated in Unreal Engine 5, often used for cinematic, training, or interactive purposes.
Immersive Culture: A workplace or brand environment that embraces immersive technologies (AR/VR/XR) to enhance creativity, training, and communication.
Immersive Experience: A digital or mixed-reality interaction that fully engages the user’s senses and attention, often through VR, AR, or interactive 3D.
Immersive Learning: Education or training delivered through immersive technologies like VR or simulations for deeper engagement and better retention.
Immersive Solutions: Custom-built AR/VR/XR applications designed to solve business challenges or enhance user interaction with digital products or spaces.
Immersive Storytelling: Narrative techniques that leverage interactivity and spatial environments to emotionally engage users.
Immersive Training: Training programs that use virtual reality or simulations to mimic real-world scenarios for hands-on learning in a safe, scalable way.
Intelligent Data Analysis: The use of advanced algorithms and AI to automatically interpret, identify patterns, and extract insights from complex data sets—enabling smarter decisions, predictions, and process optimisation.
Latency: The time delay between user input and system response in AR/VR applications. Low latency is essential for seamless interaction and avoiding motion sickness.
Level of Detail (LOD): A performance optimisation method that adjusts the complexity of a 3D model based on its distance from the viewer.
LIDAR: A sensing method that measures distances using laser light to create highly accurate 3D representations of physical spaces — critical for mapping, AR, and autonomous systems.
Lightmaps: Precomputed textures that simulate lighting and shadows in 3D environments, improving visual quality without taxing real-time performance.
LMS (Learning Management System) is a software platform used to create, manage, deliver, and track educational courses, training programs, and learning content. It enables organisations to streamline learning experiences, monitor progress, and measure performance across users and teams.
Lumen: Unreal Engine’s dynamic global illumination and reflections system, enabling realistic lighting that updates in real time.
Marker-Based AR: Augmented reality that uses visual markers (like QR codes or images) as triggers to display digital content.
Markerless AR: AR that uses sensor data and spatial tracking (like SLAM) instead of physical markers, enabling content placement in any environment.
Medical Visualisation: The use of 3D modelling, AR, or VR to visualise anatomy, procedures, or data in medical training, diagnostics, or simulation.
MegaLights: In Unreal Engine, Mega Lighting refers to advanced, high-intensity lighting setups used to simulate large-scale, cinematic environments with dynamic shadows, global illumination, and volumetric effects—pushing the visual fidelity of real-time scenes.
Mesh: A collection of vertices, edges, and faces forming the 3D shape of an object in digital space.
Meta Verse: A collective, persistent, and interactive digital space combining virtual worlds, social interaction, commerce, and digital identity — often accessed via VR or AR.
Mobile App: A software application designed for mobile devices, increasingly used to deliver 3D, AR, and real-time interactive experiences.
MR (Mixed Reality): A hybrid reality where digital and physical objects coexist and interact in real time, blending AR and VR capabilities.
MVP (Minimum Viable Product): A simplified version of a product that includes only core features, used to validate an idea with real users before full-scale development.
Nanite: Unreal Engine’s virtualised geometry system that allows artists to use film-quality assets in real-time without performance loss.
OBJ: A standard 3D model format that stores geometry data; widely supported across modelling, animation, and game engines.
Occlusion: A technique in AR that hides virtual objects behind real-world ones, enhancing realism by respecting depth and spatial hierarchy.
OpenXR: An open standard that enables cross-platform compatibility for AR and VR hardware and software, simplifying immersive development.
PBR (Physically Based Rendering): A rendering approach that simulates how light interacts with surfaces in the real world, producing more realistic materials and lighting.
Photogrammetry: The process of capturing accurate 3D models by stitching together multiple photographs of a real-world object or environment.
Plane Detection: An AR function that identifies flat surfaces (e.g., floors, tables) in the real world, allowing for accurate placement of digital objects.
Progressive Web App (PWA): A type of web app that behaves like a native app, ideal for lightweight immersive deployments.
Polygon Reduction: Also known as Mesh Decimation Techniques, used to reduce polygon count in a model while retaining visual quality for real-time performance.
Product Visualisation: The creation of high-quality 3D models and renders to showcase a product before it’s physically produced, often for marketing or e-commerce.
Prototyping: The process of building a functional early version of a product — digital or physical — to explore ideas, test features, or gather feedback.
