Epic Games has acquired Edinburgh-based cloud computing company Cloudgine and plans to integrate the technology further into Unreal Engine 4.

The firm’s technology lets developers offload certain computations such as physics and AI to the cloud rather than just relying on local hardware.

The tech can be used to power a wide variety of projects including mobile, PC and virtual reality games, as well as other enterprise applications and interactive content.

To date it’s been used in games such as physics-based Oculus Touch title Toy Box and the upcoming Crackdown 3. Microsoft has said the deal will have no effect on the developerment of the latter and is still expected to launch later this year.

“Since its inception, Cloudgine’s research and development has been based on Epic’s Unreal Engine 4.” said Epic Games senior marketing manager Dana Cowley.

“Cloudgine’s cloud computing and online technologies will enhance the UE4 feature set to help developers push the creative and technical limits of games, film, animation and visualization through advances in physics simulation and networking.”

Cloudgine was founded in 2012 in Edinburgh, Scotland by ex-Realtime Worlds staff David Jones, who was creative director on the original Crackdown, Maurizio Sciglio and Marco Anastasi.

This story originally appeared on our sibling site, PocketGamer.biz.