MetaVR Visuals Replace Legacy SIMNET Simulators at Ft. Rucker

During 2000, the US Army Simulation, Training, and Instrumentation Command (PEO STRI) upgraded the Ft. Rucker, Alabama, Aviation Testbed (AVTB) networked multiplayer Core DIS Facility from proprietary SIMNET image generators (IGs) to a PC-based solution based on MetaVR™ multi-channel visual systems.

This upgrade was the first case of the shift within the training and simulation industry from using simulators with high-end expensive, proprietary systems with specialized hardware to using simulators comprised of low-cost PCs with commercial 3D graphics cards and COTS hardware.

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 AVTB uses the  PEO STRI 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 MetaVR's Virtual Reality Scene Generator (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 PEO STRI 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.