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MILITARY TRAINING & SIMULATION NEWS Vol. 17 Issue 2 2015 ISSN: 1366 - 2309

Austrian Army Hosts Virtual Exercise

Live Training Adding C4ISTAR

Training with the French Navy

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Visual Systems

Visually Striking An Update on Making the World Real Diamond Visionics has secured a large number of recent successes in Europe through its partner, Antycip. (Source: Diamond Visionics)

Developments in visualisation - image generators, display systems and database preparation software – continue to evolve at a rapid rate. Trevor Nash takes a look at the latest developments and considers some of the highlights of the forthcoming ITEC show in Prague. isualisation has been referred to as a three-legged stool comprising the image generator, the display and the database. If anyone of these legs breaks, the stool will fall over.

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upgrade for the visual system. Orlando-based AVT Simulation, the prime contractor of the Post Deployment Software Support (PDSS) for the CCTT programme, was selected by CCTT to lead the task.

Over recent years, the capabilities afforded by modern visualisation systems continue to astound and are increasingly ‘suspending disbelief’ over a range of different simulation systems. The aim of this feature is to take a potted look at recent developments in the world of visualisation.

Bohemia Interactive Simulations (BISim), which develops the Virtual Battlespace 3 (VBS3) software series used for Army’s Games for Training Program of Record, joined the team as a subcontractor and significantly modified VBS3 to serve as the CCTT image generator software. This particular variant is known as VBS IG.

The US Army’s Close Combat Tactical Trainer (CCTT) has provided sterling service over the past two decades but in late 2012, the Program Executive Office, Simulation, Training, Ranges and Instrumentation (PEO STRI) began to consider an

During 5-8 January, representatives from the US Army Training Capabilities Manager - Virtual (TCM - V) and the Maneuver Center of Excellence (MCoE) participated in the VBS IG assessment

fly,, flexible and nd scalable iimage mage mag ge gen ge generation. ene On the fly generatio n. From source. Stunning visuals, stunning unning performance, perforrmaance, stunnin stunningly st s gly fast.

www www.antycipsimulation.com .antycipsimulation.com [email protected]

MT&SN Vol. 17 Issue 2 2015

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“Our new high fidelity EP-8100 image generator addresses the key issues facing our customers today, namely how to bring new levels of realism and performance to their training environments while preserving the investments they’ve already made,” said LeAnn Ridgeway, Vice President and General Manager, Simulation & Training for Rockwell Collins. “It provides high performance image generation in a compact design with increased reliability.”

TerraSim has recently released new versions of its TerraTools and MaterialMAP software tools. Both willl be demonstrated at ITEC in Prague. (Source: TerraSim)

for training readiness. The core CCTT tenets of Move, Shoot, & Communicate were successfully demonstrated in a variety of manoeuvre exercises and gunnery scenarios on the Fort Hood and National Training Center terrain in both daylight and night-time conditions. At the completion of the testing, the TCM-V concurred that the VBS IG was acceptable for training.

The company says that one of the key differentiators of EP-8100 is the system’s ability to utilize customers’ existing databases. It features conversion software that allows existing Rockwell Collins synthetic environments, as well as many industry standard synthetic environments, to run on the EP-8100. These converted environments can be executed in their original form or may be enhanced to take advantage of the capabilities of the EP-8100. Other new capabilities that are highlighted in the EP-8100 include: • WholeEarth environment, allowing large-area training with small inset development • Per-primitive blur for more realistic smoke, dust or heat haze • High-fidelity snow and rain effects with a full depth image rendering

“This effort was the result of over two years of work on the part of AVT Simulation and Bohemia Interactive Simulations. The effort was focused on reducing sustainment and licensing costs, leveraging gaming technology for CCTT, and providing an unprecedented level of realism to the soldier in the CCTT Training System,” said Matt Jemtrud, AVT Programme Manager for CCTT PDSS.

• Regional weather, allowing up to eight simultaneous, unique weather patterns with smooth and continuous transition from one to another

“We are pleased to have achieved this important milestone toward upgrading the IG software in the Army’s CCTT,” said John Givens, US President of Bohemia Interactive Simulations. “The use of a VBS-based IG system provides higher fidelity, enables greater customization and ultimately enhances the training capabilities of our warfighters.

• High-fidelity sensor simulation, addressing IR, NVG, EO and LLTV requirements

“Decoupling the simulation from the image generation was a tremendous effort,” said Givens. “CCTT served as a proving ground for our new product, VBS IG. There were quite a few performance enhancements to VBS that came directly from working with CCTT. We look forward to supporting CCTT in the coming years.” Not All Games There is a trend that tends to follow the idea that it is only the games and lower-cost segments that are being innovative when it comes to delivering new visual solutions. This is not always the case as can be seen with the latest release from Rockwell Collins, the EP-8100 image generator.

• Adaptive architecture, providing efficient volumetric rendering (patent pending) for more realistic clouds, smoke and dust • Industry-leading anti-aliasing algorithms, yielding superior moving image quality

• Largest catalogue of high-resolution airport models available; regular updates are also available EP-8100’s ability to run legacy Rockwell Collins and some other databases has always been the Holy Grail of simulation users but in reality, how far this aim is being achieved is unclear. In Canada, CAE promotes its Common Database (CDB) approach and this has received, and continues to receive, significant support from a number of customers. The CDB is an open, standard database that defines a single synthetic representation of the world, and all simulation systems use the same database – the CDB. The CDB is used as a run-time data repository from which the various simulation clients simultaneously retrieve relevant information to perform their respective run-time simulation tasks. The bottom line result is that with the CDB, the creation, modification and correlation of

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run-time databases can take minutes or hours instead of days, weeks or months. Just as importantly, these changes can be made very rapidly using the latest intelligence and source data available. A common database is one thing but there is also a need to have a database that is used by multiple players or agencies that is dynamic such that alterations by one – a scrape dug by a combat engineer vehicle for example – can be seen by all. CAE has developed a new capability and solution called the CAE Dynamic Synthetic Environment (DSE) that aims to create and maintain a virtual synthetic environment that more accurately and realistically simulates the real world. Based on the CDB, CAE’s Dynamic Synthetic Environment enables defence forces to train and acquire critical skills in a constantly changing and evolving synthetic environment. DSE allows for the real-time modification of the database as it responds to actions taken by players interacting with the synthetic environment, environmental effects, or by computer-generated entities in the scenario. CAE had four primary objectives guiding the development of the DSE: • Dynamic – the synthetic environment database had to have the ability to change anywhere in the world in real-time without advance preparation; • Persistence – once the synthetic environment changes as a result of any interaction with the synthetic environment, such as weather or a bomb detonating, those changes had to “persist” in real-time; • Scalable – the synthetic environment needed to support single users on a mobile or laptop-based system all the way up to large, distributed live-virtual-constructive federations;

• Open – the underlying database architecture had to be based on an open specification to enforce correlation and interoperability. Because DSE is based on the CDB, the issues of database correlation and interoperability are eliminated, thus saving time, money and effort. Importantly, all synthetic environment content can be shared across all domains – air, land, sea, or joint. The company says that by using DSE, defence forces can improve training, mission planning and rehearsal, and operational decision-making because the synthetic environment will be more realistic and more accurately simulate the real world.

Growing Business Another company to secure a raft of recent contract wins is Diamond Visionics. Based in the US, Diamond Visionics’ European business is supported by Antycip Simulation. As well as a range of software partners, Antycip also works closely with a number of companies specialising in display technologies notably Christie, projectiondesign, Digital Projection and Mersive. This allows Antycip to be a visual systems integrator than can pull together the ‘best of breed’ depending on the customer’s precise requirements. In February, MT&SN reported on the success achieved by Antycip in securing a new multi-year Enterprise Agreement with BAE Systems for the supply of the GenesisRTX, GenesisIG and GenesisSDK for the Image Generators used across the company’s synthetic training devices at its Warton site in Lancashire, UK. Antycip stated that this sixty month contract represented the singular ability of the Diamond Visionics products to take advantage of the exponential growth in CPU and GPU performance available in low cost computer hardware. The GenesisRTX render engine visualizes complex 3D scenes anywhere on the earth directly

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the situation will be clarified before ITEC where both Barco and Esterline are exhibiting. As MT&SN understands the situation, Esterline has acquired the display systems such as SEER, RP360 and LTSD as well as edge-blending and colour-matching software tools. Barco retains the projection systems, such as Sim7 and Sim10 as well as the F-Series projectors that were previously owned by projectiondesign. High-end projectors, such as Sim7 and Sim10 will be exclusively provided by Esterline although Barco can sell F-Series projectors. More details to follow in Issue 3!

The F-82 projector, part of the Barco/projectiondesign F-Series DLP-based projector family.

One of the visualisation highlights of ITEC will be the demonstration of TerraSim’s new MaterialMAP 1.2 image classification software. MaterialMAP generates, attributes and exports surface material maps for use in a number of different runtimes. These include VBS2, VBS3, Steel Beasts Pro, OneSAF OTF, JCATS and JSAF CTDB.

(Source: Barco/projectiondesign)

from GIS source data, during run time, without the need for additional terrain optimization software or intermediate formats. BAE Systems now has full access to Genesis for existing devices at its Warton site and will be able to integrate this with new devices in the future.

According to TerraSim, the news features associated with v.1.2 include faster processing and classification; a reassignment tool to redefine classified pixels to other surface types; enhanced vector import support; aggregation support for VBS3 extended surfaces; and, a new defined class for storing vector polygons to pre-set pixel colours.

In another recent example of success for the Antycip – Diamond Visionics team is with Airbus Defence and Space who selected GenesisIG and GenesisSN to support the Airbus Defence and Space Typhoon Engineering Simulator.

TerraSim will also use ITEC to show its latest terrain generation software, TerraTools 5.1. The key element of this version will be the support offered for Bohemia Interactive Simulations’ VBS IG and VBS Tactics.

Eric Engelsman, Head of Simulation User Interfaces & Networks at Airbus Defence and Space, commented that, “working with Antycip Simulation, we chose Diamond Visionics’ GenesisIG and GenesisSN for our Typhoon Dome because of one major factor, the on-the-fly out-the-window imagery construction. This capability reduces the need for costly resources dedicated to database construction, with no compromise on the high update rate needed for fighter simulations.” Since this award, Antycip has secured additional visual systems business in Europe alongside Germany’s projection specialists, eyevis. Antycip Simulation and eyevis have successfully upgraded a visual Air Traffic Control (ATC) simulator for Switzerland’s Skyguide, the organisation responsible for air safety in Swiss and adjoining airspaces. The project involved modernising the TOSIM Blue tower simulator, to improve its performance in training situations, through greater resolution, colour depiction and brightness. The project involved the installation of fourteen eyevis ESP-LWXT1000 LED projectors, combined into a single 360˚ simulation with a 9.5m diameter. The tower visuals including a number of national and international airports and airfields are displayed exactly as they would be viewed from their respective air traffic control towers. Christian Massmann CEO of eyevis Group about the advantages of the eyevis projectors: “These WUXGA resolution projectors enable a 30% higher pixel density per screen area. This provides a significantly increased level of detail for the simulation. The increased brightness and the eye-catching colour quality help to provide a stunning representation of the airport apron improving the quality of the visual simulation.” One of the latest developments to impact the world of visual display systems concerns Barco and the purchase of some elements of its training and simulation business by Esterline. It is unlikely that Page 20.

The focus of TerraSim’s offering centres on the re-use of visual databases. MaterialMAP takes this a step further . (Source: TerraSim)

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