MetaVR Delivers Iraq 3D Databases to Combat Studies Institute

The Combat Studies Institute (CSI), an academic department within the Combined Arms Center at Ft. Leavenworth, KS, uses 3D terrain of areas in and around Baghdad, Iraq, from MetaVR. The Baghdad databases, or “virtual views” as CSI refers to them, are used to create enhanced warfighter training experiences and opportunities prior to deployment.

	MetaVR's 3D terrain of Baghdad, showing an area next to the Green Zone. Click Zoom to see a high-resolution version of the image.

MetaVR developed the 270 km x 200 km 3D terrain from colorized 1 meter black and white imagery and 30 meter elevation data using our terrain creation software, both our commercial products and internal tools. Within the overall terrain databases, nine built up regions were developed, each with an average of approximately 885,000 polygons per scene, including six of areas in Baghdad, two of the town of An Nasiriyah, and one of Al Aziziyah, a town about 60 km east of Baghdad. Each 6 km x 6 km area consisted of built up microterrain with geospecific cultural content and colorized imagery.

About the delivery

The initial delivery of February 1, 2005, contained high-resolution, geo-specific terrain and cultural content representing nine areas of interest in Iraq, including the cities of Baghdad, An Nasiriyah, and Al Aziziyah. These nine areas are located within an area of approximately 270 km x 200 km, ranging from 3431520N to 3698956N and from 427050E to 622213E.

VRSG rendering of a portion of the Green Zone area of MetaVR's 3D terrain of Baghdad. Monuments and other landmarks of the area were modeled from photographs of the Green Zone.

CSI uses the 3D terrain to conduct virtual staff rides of selected Baghdad case studies as part of professional development training for U.S. Army officers.

	VRSG rendering of a convoy approaching a neighborhood in MetaVR's 3D terrain of Baghdad. The scene is from a MetaVR demo scenario. The vehicle models, character models, and some of the cultural feature models shown in the scene are from MetaVR's 3D libraries; additional building and street element models were created specifically for this terrain.

About the models

To create realistic feature content, MetaVR’s model designers created photo-realistic models of several types of buildings and other cultural features, such as bridges, trees, sewer pipes, street lights, power lines, curbs, fences, culverts, and public monuments. The cultural features were modeled in Blender, an open source 3D modeling application; the model designers made use of MetaVR’s new plugin to Blender. Many of these features were built with photo-realistic textures based on public domain photographs of the Baghdad area. Content from MetaVR's 3D model libraries is also used in the databases.

	VRSG rendering of MetaVR's Baghdad 3D terrain, showing the large collection of features modeled specifically for this terrain. Click to swap rendered and wireframe views.

About the databases

MetaVR subsequently compiled two large terrain databases to combine all of the area and cultural content of the databases described above. One database is 207 km x 190 km and contains the greater Baghdad area, which MetaVR recently enhanced with geospecific imagery and photo-specific models of the Green Zone area. The other database covers an area of 117 km x 111 km and is centered on An Nasiryah.

	MetaVR's 3D terrain of Baghdad is designed to support convoy simulation by accurately representing complex multi-elevation structures such as cloverleaf overpasses, underpasses, and bridges. Click to swap rendered and wireframe views.

Terrain database characteristics:
	Greater Baghdad   Imagery build time:   Geometry build time:   Database size:   Size on disk: An Nasiriyah   Imagery build time:   Geometry build time:   Database size:   Size on disk:		= 26 hrs 20 mins = 1 hr 40 mins = 207 km x 190 km = 34.5 GB = 10 hours = 27 mins = 117 km x 111 km = 11.3 GB
	Extents - Greater Baghdad:                Extents - An Nasiriyah:
	N33 54' 51.41" E45 40' 58.09" E43 39' 3.82" N32 3' 1.06"		N31 33' 42" E46 51' 49.63" E45 41' 27.72" N30 31' 12"
	Terrain post Patch size Source imagery		= 32 mpp = 2048 m = 2 GB
	Elevation coverage:
	30 meter elevation data
	Imagery coverage:
	60cm color DigitalGlobe Citysphere imagery of Baghdad 1 meter black and white imagery, color-fused by MetaVR using 15mpp Landsat-based color imagery
	Cultural features:
	Cultural elements include thousands of photo-realistic buildings (residential, office, and commercial buildings, and mosques) bridges, overpasses, signs, sewer pipes, power lines, street lights, curbs, concrete and wire fences, culverts, a control tower, monuments, runways, water towers and thousands of trees of varying types.

About the training environment

CSI’s training for military officers includes conducting virtual staff rides of selected Baghdad campaigns using MetaVR's terrain databases. The initial use of the databases is for training Command and General Staff College students. Instead of traveling to a site to execute a normal staff ride, students can use VRSG to visualize the terrain. They use the same procedures as in a normal staff ride except that they do not physically "walk" the terrain.

	VRSG rendering of a convoy simulation on MetaVR's 3D terrain of Baghdad. The vehicle models shown in the convoy image below are from MetaVR's 3D model entity library. Tha character models and some of the cultural feature models are from MetaVR's 3D libraries; additional building and street element models were created specifically for this terrain.

Actual and simulated views of the Baghdad area

Below is a series of images of the Baghdad area. You can compare photographs of the actual Baghdad area on the left side with the VRSG screen captures of the simulated view on the right. The models of buildings and other structures are photorealistic; the models were created from public domain photographs of the Baghdad area.

Photographs of Baghdad and the surrounding areas.	VRSG virtual-camera pictures of MetaVR's real-time Baghdad databases.

Click here to view real-time recordings of scenarios rendered in VRSG featuring this database and others. The media clips were made with VRSG's new real-time MPEG encoding feature.

The MetaVR Baghdad terrain databases MetaVR’s Baghdad databases are available free of charge to all US Government agencies and contractors (for official use only) and require VRSG version 5.0 or higher.

A selection of geospecific models that MetaVR's modelers created for this database are now available in Google Earth's .kmz format.