One World Terrain
University of Southern California Institute of Creative Technologies
Bohemia Interactive Simulations is contributing to research related to the US Army’s Synthetic Training Environment (STE), as part of a diverse team under contract to the Institute of Creative Technologies.
The One World Terrain concept is an inspiring vision and one that’s spurring innovation.
One World Terrain (OWT) aims to deliver a single terrain database that will “provide the virtual dirt to replicate any operational environment,” delivering a single open architecture, enabling joint and combined arms training for the land, sea, air and cyber domains, and working with first-person runtime environments, according to Army officials. BISimTM has been providing the latest developments in its whole-earth rendering technology, VBS Blue, to assist the STE researchers in their efforts.
VBS Blue combines cutting-edge, procedural terrain generation with easy import of geo-specific data layers through an open pipeline. VBS Blue currently utilizes hundreds of biomes, each with own surface types and vegetation, to enable users to train anywhere immediately in representative geographic features. VBS Blue also features whole-earth road networks, airports and urban areas generated from OpenStreetMap (OSM) data. And with VBS Blue, high-resolution insets blend seamlessly with low-resolution base data, providing users high flexibility and high fidelity.
A key focus of the research involves representation of megacities in synthetic environments. The Army wants its simulation-based capabilities to “reflect the complexities of such environments.” Other work has included importing procedurally generated cities from SE Core data, developing a STE World Server and representing meta-data (Operational Environment Layers) for entire theatres, all within the One World Terrain provided by VBS Blue.
To complement the development of VBS Blue, BISim has developed a prototype WYSIWYG terrain editing tool called VBS Geo that offers users without technical terrain expertise a modern, intuitive interface for building out the geo-specific 3D virtual environment in more detail.
“The One World Terrain concept is an inspiring vision and one that’s spurring innovation,” said Pete Morrison, BISim’s Co-CEO. “We’re proud to contribute to the future of military simulation and training.”
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At the University of Southern California Institute for Creative Technologies (ICT), leaders in the artificial intelligence, graphics, virtual reality and narrative communities are working to advance immersive techniques and technologies to solve problems facing service members, students and society.
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Founded in 2001, Bohemia Interactive Simulations (BISim), a wholly-owned subsidiary of BAE Systems, Inc., is a global software company at the forefront of simulation and training solutions for defense and civilian organizations. Globally, many hundreds of thousands of military personnel are trained every year using BISim’s high-fidelity VBS software products. More than 60 NATO and NATO-friendly countries, and over 300 integrators/prime contractors use VBS technology, many making significant funding commitments to extend VBS product capabilities. BISim’s customers include the U.S. Army, U.S. Marine Corps, Canadian Armed Forces, French Army, Bundeswehr, Swedish Armed Forces, Australian Defence Force, New Zealand Defence Force and many major system integrators.
