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Future-Proofing the Virtual Battlespace for the U.S. Military

VBS3 is a highly successful game-based application that is used to train soldiers and marines in tactical training and mission rehearsal. However, emerging requirements reveal the need for technology not readily available in the entertainment space, including whole-earth terrain, real-world weather systems and doctrinal AI. This presentation will discuss how VBS is being rebuilt to leverage the best of what both game and simulation technology can offer, in order to deliver a new generation of training game to the US military.

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Future-Proofing the Virtual Battlespace for the U.S. Military

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  1. Future-Proofing the Virtual Battlespace … through modularity and One World Terrain Copyright © 2017Bohemia Interactive Simulations All other trademarks or copyrights are the property of their respective owners. All Rights Reserved.

  2. Operation Flashpoint: VBS “Zero” Operation Flashpoint (2001) was a first-person simulation-based computer game supporting air, land & sea platforms Large, open environments Included a mission editor and a script language Copyright © 2017Bohemia Interactive Simulations All other trademarks or copyrights are the property of their respective owners. All Rights Reserved.

  3. The Legacy of Operation Flashpoint Copyright © 2017Bohemia Interactive Simulations All other trademarks or copyrights are the property of their respective owners. All Rights Reserved.

  4. Why Games? Computer games are proven to aid in cognitive learning (“how to think”) But also… Enemy mindset training Vehicle identification Vehicle check point Vehicle and object search IED training Route clearance Convoy training Gunnery training Crew served weapons Aircraft mission simulation Driver training Crew training Surveillance systems Sensor training FO/FAC training Vehicle recovery UAS training Engineer training Radio procedures Ship familiarization Rules of engagement First aid training Scuba training Parachuting Anti-piracy operations Cultural awareness Lessons learned Aircraft part- task training CBRN training Sniper training First response training Mission rehearsal Ops room / staff training Navigation training Intel training CASEVAC training Copyright © 2017Bohemia Interactive Simulations All other trademarks or copyrights are the property of their respective owners. All Rights Reserved.

  5. The Game Industry is HUGE! ... a global industry estimated to be worth $100 billion by EOY 2017! 155 million Americans play video games FOUR OUT OF FIVE U.S. Households own a device used to play video games 42% of Americans play video games regularly (3 hours or more per week) The average game player is 35 years old, and 44% of game players are women 56% of most frequent gamers play with other gamers Copyright © 2017Bohemia Interactive Simulations All other trademarks or copyrights are the property of their respective owners. All Rights Reserved.

  6. How to Acquire Game Technology? There are many approaches to acquiring game technology. Here are two… License game platforms and BUILD training applications ▪ Examples include Real World, Delta 3D, Unreal 4… ▪ Pros: • Government-wide licensing arrangements, at a (perceived) lower cost ▪ Cons: • High through-life support cost (maintaining source code, buying code updates) • Typical military integrators are not game developers, which increases risk • Configuration management challenges License training applications and CUSTOMIZE them for military use ▪ Examples include VBS3, Tactical Language ▪ Pros: • Commercial-off-the-shelf software has a lower through-life support cost • Lower delivery risk, because software can be verified and validated at the start ▪ Cons: • More difficult to apply/shape the technology to meet new requirements without engaging the developer Copyright © 2017Bohemia Interactive Simulations All other trademarks or copyrights are the property of their respective owners. All Rights Reserved.

  7. Software Design Monolithic ▪ Focused on performance and development agility, not focused on reuse. Modular (Component) ▪ Well defined software components integrated to suit a need, while focusing on reuse. Services-based ▪ Collection of network-based, loosely associated components that interact for a goal. Copyright © 2017Bohemia Interactive Simulations All other trademarks or copyrights are the property of their respective owners. All Rights Reserved.

  8. History of Modularity in Games Software Crisis ▪ In 1968, NATO coined the term “software crisis” at the first NATO Software Engineering Conference in Germany. ▪ This “software crises” was in response to the need to deal with the recently coined monolithic software that was pervasive on huge mainframe applications. Proliferation of gaming technology ▪ Game middleware became a common method for game companies to accelerate development but in the majority of applications it was integrated in a monolithic fashion. Serious Games ▪ Serious games leveraged the same gaming middleware approach. ▪ This has allowed for a degree of modularity, but in most cases serious games are not built around military simulation standards, which is both good and bad; on the one hand, they have been able to innovate quickly, but on the other hand, interoperability and reuse can suffer. Copyright © 2017Bohemia Interactive Simulations All other trademarks or copyrights are the property of their respective owners. All Rights Reserved.

  9. Game Middleware Middleware provides off-the-shelf functionality for game engines. Not trivial to implement – and there are integration and licensing pitfalls! ▪ Physical simulation ▪ Artificial intelligence ▪ Animation ▪ Lighting and clouds ▪ RakNet networking engine ▪ Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG) back-ends Examples of game middleware: Copyright © 2017Bohemia Interactive Simulations All other trademarks or copyrights are the property of their respective owners. All Rights Reserved.

  10. Copyright © 2017Bohemia Interactive Simulations All other trademarks or copyrights are the property of their respective owners. All Rights Reserved.

  11. Solving the Terrain Problem Years after the wide-spread adoption of military simulation, worldwide militaries are still grappling with a “terrain problem” ▪ A myriad of terrain formats for a myriad of runtimes ▪ A copious amount of geo-referenced data and an ever-expanding range of data collection devices ▪ … and yet it still takes too long to generate new terrain Copyright © 2017Bohemia Interactive Simulations All other trademarks or copyrights are the property of their respective owners. All Rights Reserved.

  12. Rendering Runtime Formats Obsolete? The US Army STE “One World Terrain” (OWT) aims to solve the terrain problem through central distribution of a simulation platform ▪ One “ground truth” that solves correlation issues between sims and maximizes re-use! We recommend not adopting a new or existing “terrain format”… ▪ Instead, we believe that STE (and similar initiatives) should ingest any geo-referenced data (new or legacy) and render it directly ▪ Source data is already standardized! We have developed a planetary rendering engine that ingest any geo- referenced source type through open plug-ins: VBS Blue ▪ DTED ▪ Coastline data ▪ OpenStreetMap ▪ 3D geometry data Forestry data Point cloud data Land use data Imagery (satellite / aerial) … ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ ▪ Legacy terrain formats can be rendered in Blue through new plug-ins, or as 3D models ▪ Correlation out to legacy formats will also be supported Copyright © 2017Bohemia Interactive Simulations All other trademarks or copyrights are the property of their respective owners. All Rights Reserved.

  13. Demonstration Copyright © 2017Bohemia Interactive Simulations All other trademarks or copyrights are the property of their respective owners. All Rights Reserved.

  14. Conclusion Modularity will allow the US Army to smartly leverage game technology ▪ Building games is high risk (simply acquiring UE4 or Unity is not the answer!), but… ▪ Buying COTS can result in vendor lock-in ▪ An approached based on modular components (e.g. “Gears”) is desirable… swap out game technology to leverage best-of-breed “One World Terrain” requires an open, whole-earth engine to solve the terrain problem ▪ … that reads directly from source data, and supports plug-ins for additional data types Final thought: the US Army needs to leverage innovation in the broader tech industry and not rely solely on traditional military contractors. The US Army is on the verge of a step-change in simulation capability! Copyright © 2017Bohemia Interactive Simulations All other trademarks or copyrights are the property of their respective owners. All Rights Reserved.

  15. Thank You! Contact me at peter.morrison@bisimulations.com for more info.

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