MetaVR Technology Chosen for DoD Helicopter Simulator Upgrades

The US Army Simulation, Training, and Instrumentation Command (STRICOM) upgraded the Ft. Rucker, Alabama, Aviation Testbed (AVTB) networked multiplayer Core DIS Facility from proprietary image generators (IG) to a PC-based solution based on MetaVR multi-channel visual systems.

The Core DIS Facilities provide DoD agencies and their contractors with research, development, test and evaluation to support experimentation in three domains: Advanced Concepts and Requirements (ACR), Training, Exercises and Military Operations (TEMO), and Research, Development and Acquisition (RDA). All the simulators are networked so that pilots can train against each other or artificially intelligent aggressor armies.

			The Ft. Rucker, Alabama AVTB uses the  STRICOM rotary wing  (RWA) and fixed-wing aircraft (FWA) simulation models ported from the GT-111 IG coupled with the MetaVR multi-channel visual systems to field eight networked immersive flight simulators. The visual representation of the 3D battlefield is created by the MetaVR VRSG real-time scene manager running Microsoft Windows on Intel personal computers with PC-based graphics accelerators in a rack-mounted installation. The entire MetaVR PC-based simulator costs far less than a single visual channel from high-end visual system providers while providing a nearly limitless upgrade path based on readily available 3D PC graphics card accelerators from the game community.
	While competitive in cost, the MetaVR multi-channel visual system provides scene quality and frame-rates that are dramatically superior to the upgraded SimNet legacey image generators. The MetaVR visual systems and the STRICOM simulation models have full terrain correlation with SAF and other legacy SimNet devices. Pilots are actively training in this fully operational facility managed by Lockheed Martin as part of the ADST II program.