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Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation & Education Conference (I/ITSEC) - Orlando, FL - December 6, 2004 - MultiGen-Paradigm®, Inc., a leading provider of realtime 3D visual simulation software solutions, was chosen by Universal Systems & Technology, Inc. (UNITECH®) to provide Creator Terrain Studio™ as the large-area terrain production software to create the high fidelity, photorealistic 3D terrain models for the U.S. Army's Combat Maneuver Training Center Interim Live Fire (CMTCILF). In today's dynamic-threat environment, military units may have to deploy at a moment's notice and conduct operations that have not been predicted, planned or practiced. Recent experience has shown that soldiers must be well trained in asymmetric warfare in order to succeed in ground operations. Ground engagements require a specific skill set that must be supported by training facilities and devices that accommodate these types of military operations including after-action review (AAR) capabilities to evaluate the effectiveness of the training that the units are receiving. In order for the U.S. Army to better prepare its soldiers for combat maneuvers, they contracted with UNITECH to provide a detailed terrain model and live action visualization system for a live fire, instrumented tank gunnery range in Germany. The application is used to stress each command level of the warfighter, provide crew proficiency training and collect key metrics to support AAR capabilities. The application enables tanks to pull into fighting position on the range and shoot at pop-up targets with real, but non-explosive ammunition. The tanks are instrumented with GPS receivers for data collection. As the action unfolds on the range, data is relayed to a PC based analyst station and overlayed onto the synthetically generated environment for AAR. The database was modeled to a high degree of accuracy allowing line of site calculation to be executed from the target positions back to the exercise participants and allows the pop-up targets to generate a synthetic "Shoot Back" capability. UNITECH instrumented the tanks to collect and relay to the exercise control station their exact position, when they are firing and what ammunition is being fired. The targets were also instrumented to transmit data indicating when specific targets were raised and lowered. The 3D terrain models used to populate this training system were constructed using MultiGen-Paradigm's large-area terrain production environment, Creator Terrain Studio™. Creator Terrain Studio delivers a unique set of 3D scene creation, geometry/texture creation tools and workflow management focused on the production of complex, large-area realtime 3D terrain databases. Using Creator Terrain Studio's terrain tessellation, virtual texture imagery tools, culture projection features and flexible workflow management capabilities, UNITECH was successful in developing thirteen terrain databases that covered three different tank maneuver and gunnery ranges. Each of the three different databases had a summer, winter, and infrared (IR) white hot and black hot version. Creator Terrain Studio's common database approach maintains structured and optimized data in industry maintained open formats. This capability allowed UNITECH to develop the different ranges, then enhance, and republish them in four different versions in just 12 days saving time and money. Substantial effort was expended in source data collection, correction and correlation to populate the databases. Each database covers a geographic area of 5 x 7 km at 1-meter terrain resolution to allow the tanks to hide in the terrain and assume realistic fighting positions. The elevation source included Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) data to represent the 1-meter terrain contours. Ten (10) cm color imagery was then merged into a tiled-texture and then draped over the terrain models. Cultural features in 3D mode were projected onto the terrain models representing trees and important buildings. UNITECH discovered the application's scene graph had memory limitations that restricted the amount of resolution rendered in the scene. Creator Terrain Studio provided UNITECH the flexibility and control to manage resolution within the target inset areas without compromising performance. Using Creator Terrain Studio's statemap management functionality, UNITECH was able to maximize resolution around tree lines and terrain berms and still fit the content into its Image Generator's (IG) system memory. Creator Terrain Studio's validation and verification capabilities ensured UNITECH was able to meet its performance requirements prior to publishing. Problems were identified early in the production pipeline ensuring greater success and faster deployment. "Without Creator Terrain Studio's selectable statemaps to specifically manage database resolution it would have been impossible to modify and recompile 13 databases in 3 days," said Rick Wrenn, Program Manager at UNITECH. UNITECH is committed to understanding customer requirements and exceeding expectations by providing the best-valued business and technical solutions. This commitment and our demonstrated capability and performance track record, together with MultiGen-Paradigm's Creator Terrain Studio, allowed UNITECH to deliver databases with a level of realism that exceeded our customer's expectations while meeting performance requirements. About MultiGen-Paradigm All trademarks, trade names, service marks and logos referenced herein belong to their respective companies For more information, press only:
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