In 2004, when VRizer was developed, game engines were the most widely used method for creating PC-based, real-time interactive applications. Numerous games came with high-performance editors as standard equipment and thus gave a broad spectrum of users the opportunity to realize their own conceptions in three-dimensional environments. With the help of game editors, it was possible to create highly complex, effective and dramatic environments with a minimum of effort.

With the development of the software framework VRizer, however, the Ars Electronica Futurelab has gone one step further and, in doing so, has closed the gap between applications based on game engines on the one hand and high-end platforms like the ARSBOX and other elaborate VR devices on the other. The software framework enables the user to make any OpenGL application compatible with any configuration of the ARSBOX in active and passive stereo mode.

In the art scene at that time, the most widely used engine was “Unreal Tournament 2003,” which also made it the obvious component for the first “VRizer” applications. In addition to artistic works, the Ars Electronica Futurelab staff also modified game-editor-based architectural visualization software and computer games, two closely related types of programs, for the VRizer’s immersive virtual environments.