Digital Realms Chooses MetaVR Visuals for NG2000 Program

Digital Realms Incorporated chose 72 PC-based visual channels running MetaVR's VRSG software and 14 MetaVR Simulation Host systems as part of their delivery for the National Guard 2000 (NG2000) program. The MetaVR visual systems provided 4 sub-pixel full-scene anti-aliasing.

This program involved repairing 14 National Guard simulators used to train M1 and M2 crews, including: 8 ARPA Reconfigurable Simulators, 4 PCMS Desktop simulators, and 2 prototype SIMNET simulators. The goal of the NG2000 program is to rehost the simulators with a generic software platform using COTS PC hardware. This goal was accomplished by replacing the simulation host software with Digital Realms' BattleStorm simulation system and replacing the image generation software with MetaVR’s VRSG™ software. The legacy visual systems hardware, including several SGI Onyx Reality Engine 2 computer systems were replaced with MetaVR’s Commercial Ruggedized Rackmount systems in a 2U high chassis using an off-the-shelf PC video card.

The original specification for these systems called for them  to run at a resolution of 640x480 at 15 Hz. The visual systems provided by MetaVR have 64 MB of video memory and use the VSA-100 architecture that supports real-time, 4 sub-pixel, full scene anti-aliasing with textures up to 2048 x 2048-pixels. The Commercial Ruggedized Rackmount image generators run at a resolution of 1024 x 768 with the MetaVR software at greater than 30 Hz with FSAA enabled. A further advantage of the COTS PC-based solution is the elimination of recurring hardware maintenance fees or annual software licensing fees (thus, no reoccurring costs) during the life of the system. The result has been an overall improvement in simulation fidelity while reducing costs.

BattleStorm is a generic simulation software system created by Digital Realms to be used across a variety of simulator hardware. It is scalable from low to high fidelity and provides a common platform on which to train on a variety of simulators. BattleStorm was built from the ground up to run on generic COTS PC equipment under Windows 98, NT, or 2000. These systems typically cost less than the annual maintenance fees for older legacy systems. BattleStorm systems can readily be integrated with simulator-specific hardware.

The Virtual Reality Scene Generator (VRSG)™, MetaVR's core product, uses the Microsoft DirectX API to provide textured, real-time visualization of dense multiplayer virtual worlds. Our terrain and texture paging technology enable us to depict ultra realistic virtual worlds derived from gigabytes of actual aerial imagery and elevation data. VRSG provides single or multiple hardware-synchronized full-screen or windowed views up to 1600 x 1200-pixel resolution on a personal computer using low-cost commercial 3D accelerators.

Digital Realms also acquired MetaVR's WorldPerfect™ virtual world terrain creation system and a prototype 30 x 30 kilometer National Training Center (NTC) database built from DTED Level 1 data and textured using 2-meter resolution natural color aerial photography and the corresponding CTDB. MetaVR's NTC database is populated with cut-and-fill roads, trees, buildings, runways and other cultural features.