Graham Warwick/ATLANTA
INTHELAND of illusion, designed by Disney's imagineers, the simulation industry gathered in early December to dazzle its customers with the realism of the virtual worlds it can now create.
While the packed exhibit halls of the Interservice/Industry Training Systems and Education Conference (I/ITSEC) in Orlando, Florida, were dominated by the stunningly real computer-generated images displayed on video walls, the major message for the mainly military audience was that the best of the technology on show was commercial.
For the military, commercial means cheaper, and the promise of prices measured in hundreds of thousands, rather that tens of millions, of dollars. At I/ITSEC, there was clear evidence that the simulation branches of the US services have grasped the potential of commercial technology. It may not be long, before simulators carry the Intel Inside and Microsoft Windows logos, familiar to personal computer (PC) buyers.
Intel and Microsoft were the behind -the-scenes stars of I/ITSEC, providing hardware and software for many of the participants in the live battle simulations, which have become a feature of the show. These annual demonstrations now involve hundreds of networked players, ranging from an engineer at a computer keyboard in a booth to a pilot in a fighter simulator in a laboratory somewhere in the USA.
Intel's Pentium Pro microprocessor and Microsoft's Windows NT operating system, feature in many of the simulation products introduced at this year's I/ITSEC.
SIGN OF THE TIMES
Perhaps the surest sign of the change under way in military simulation is that the image-generator manufacturers, perhaps the industry's last bastion of proprietary hardware and software, are embracing commercial technology - not willingly, but in response to the visuals-market success of Silicon Graphics (SGI) with its commercial "graphics supercomputers".
SGI launched its latest Onyx2 Infinite Reality image-generator earlier in 1996 and it forms the basis of several visual systems displayed at I/ITSEC. Hughes Training (HTI) has upgraded its Lockheed Martin F-16 unit training-device (UTD) to the Infinite Reality, having started out just three years and two generations ago with the Onyx Reality Engine. Thomson Training & Simulation (TTS), similarly, has upgraded its Space Magic visual to the Infinite Reality and is now focusing development on the SGI-based machine rather than its proprietary Space Classic visual - at least for military applications.
SGI entered the image-generator market by drawing to it a group of companies with the software tools needed to build visual databases to run on its machines. As SGI's market share has grown, its partners have grown, and at I/ITSEC they introduced new versions of their database-modeling systems able to take advantage of the Infinite Reality's increased performance. Corypheus Software launched Version 4 of its visual-simulation tool set, which includes the Designer's Workbench for modeling, Easy T for terrain creation and Easy Scene for real-time image generation. Paradigm Simulation introduced its latest Vega 3.0 database-development software, while Software Systems launched an upgraded version of its widely used MultiGen modeling tool.
These partners, in particular, have been instrumental in SGI's success in the visuals market, helping break the hold that the established image-generator makers, each with its own unique hardware and software, had on the simulation industry. SGI's principal target has been visuals-market leader Evans & Sutherland (E&S), and at I/ITSEC in Orlando, E&S unveiled its response to SGI's continued inroads into its traditional marketplace.
PREDICTABLE RESPONSE
E&S's response, inevitably, has been to embrace commercial technology. The company's new line of image generators is built around the Pentium Pro processor, with special-purpose hardware used only for the computation-intensive rendering of the final image. Its Integrator database-development system allows the purchaser to use any commercially available software tool that is compatible with Windows NT.
While E&S's new Harmony high-performance image-generator incorporates several advanced features which result in a new level of scene realism, the key to its new Universal 3D Architecture is the use of commercial technology, says president Jim Oyler. The Integrator development system allows the user to build a database using commercial software, such as MultiGen, then run the database on E&S image-generators ranging from the low-end REAL image to the high-end Harmony.
The REAL image is a graphics-accelerator card for an NT workstation, which uses the same hardware as the Harmony. According to Oyler, this enables users to develop databases on NT workstations, which cost far less than the UNIX computers now required in the development of high-performance visual systems. This allows users to tap into the rapid pace of development in workstation technology, fuelled by the broad commercial computing market, Oyler explains.
By adopting the Pentium Pro and Windows NT, E&S intends to benefit from the price decreases and performance increases which come with each new generation of PC technology. Olyer believes that even SGI, which uses its own MIPS microprocessors and Performer operating system in its image generators, will not be able to keep up with the pace of development in Intel hardware and Microsoft software, which is driven by the global PC-based market.
INDUSTRY STANDARD
Embracing industry standards for both hardware and software is a bold, but necessary, move for E&S, which has a huge installed base of visual systems using its proprietary technology. The Harmony is being introduced initially as a military system, and an early customer will be the British Army, for its McDonnell Douglas (MDC) AH-64D Longbow Apache simulators, but the system is expected to replace the company's ESIG-series commercial flight-simulator visual systems within 18 months. Oyler says that the Integrator development system enables existing ESIG databases to be translated to run on the new machines.
The shift to commercial technology has been under way for some time on the platform-simulation side of the military business. Reasons include the need to reduce simulator costs to fit within tighter budgets, and a realisation that the networking of lower-fidelity devices can provide substantial training benefit.
LEVEL OF FIDELITY
HTI's F-16 UTD is a classic example. Intended as a limited-fidelity device to be located at squadrons to provide continuation training between flights in the aircraft and rides in a high-fidelity weapon-system trainer (WST), the UTD is now seen as the basis of a new generation of simulator. Adding a more-advanced visual system and more-capable sensor and threat simulations can turn the $1.4 million UTD into a full-mission simulator costing substantially less to buy and operate than an old-style WST, argues HTI.
The company is already performing a similar transformation for Taiwan, which has ordered six unit-level and two full-mission trainers for the F-16A. The devices are essentially similar, with the higher-fidelity mission simulator featuring a 360í field-of-view dome visual, increased radar-simulation capability and a threat environment with more players.
The UTD uses SGI hardware for both host computing and image generation, and HTI has been able to upgrade the devices when each new computer generation has been introduced. F-16 UTDs based on the Infinite Reality are now being delivered, and others upgraded.
DISPLAY CHOICES
Several simulator manufacturers are producing UTD-type devices. A key to their success as WST-type simulators is the visual system. AT I/ITSEC, SEOS Displays unveiled a scaled-down version of its Panorama cross-cockpit display intended for combat-aircraft simulators and providing a field of view of up to 180í. MDC, meanwhile, revealed that its unique Visual Integrated Display System is to be used in 216í and 360í field-of-view versions on UTD-type simulators for the F-15 and upgraded Northrop T-38.
The US Army, meanwhile, is evaluating a prototype of its unit-level Aviation Manned Reconfigurable Simulator, built by Reflectone and equipped with a low-cost helmet-mounted display. The National Guard plans to award a contract in 1997 for 36 networked ARMS, each costing around $1 million and able to simulate the Bell AH-1, UH-1 and OH-58D, Boeing CH-47, MDC AH-64 and Sikorsky UH-60 helicopters.
Source: Flight International
