MetaVR IRserver

MetaVR™ IRserver™, a component of Virtual Reality Scene Generator™ (VRSG™) version 5, enables computer image generators (CIGs) to render a physics-based simulated infra-red (IR) real-time scene. The IRserver is an open-architecture, CIG-independent, network-based IR simulation that uses extensions to the DIS protocol to communicate with the image generators it services.

VRSG sensor-based image of a simulated convoy on MetaVR's Baghdad database, using entities and cultural features from MetaVR's 3D content libraries. Click the image to see the real-time recording of the scene with VRSG's latest sensor effects.

Just as the VRSG is an interface to a virtual world with rendered complexity dependent on the complexity and quality of the input data, you need a physics model to drive the IRserver with physically accurate sensor signatures. Although the IRserver interface provides a software interface description to drive an arbitrarily complex physics model; it does not contain a physics model itself. To instantiate the IR output, you can provide your own physics model or purchase and install a runtime physics model from Technology Service Corporation (TSC), which the IRserver supports natively. Contact TSC for pricing and exportability.

	View of insurgents loading mortar at a tunnel entrance on MetaVR's Afghanistan 3D terrain rendered in VRSG. The image on the right is simulated UAV camera thermal mode, which shows some heat at the location of the mortar.

Once you have installed the TSC runtime physics model or your own physics model, the IRserver will be ready to output accurate sensor signatures.

Infra-red view of a humvee model from the MetaVR 3D vehicle library (on the left) beside an infra-red photograph of an actual humvee vehicle. The photograph of the real humvee vehicle is taken from PEO-STRI's poster of the Recognition of Combat Vehicles (ROC-V) Program, which has been displayed at trade shows. The photograph is used here as a backgound image in the MetaVR Model Viewer. In the upper right is the textured view of the humvee model.

IRserver benefits

The IRserver runs on a dedicated computer on the simulation network and can service multiple channels rendering IR scenes. The advantages to MetaVR's server-based approach to IR simulation include:

The IR server can support any number of channels on a network. IR modeling overhead is off-loaded to a dedicated computer; the IG channels themselves are not burdened with this processing overhead. This allows the IG channels to run at comparable frame rates to that of a normal visual spectrum scene. The IRserver is not burdened with the rendering of the IR scenes, thus it can use a much higher fidelity model than what would be possible if the IR modeling took place on the same computer that is rendering the IR scene. The distributed nature of the server enables IG independence. An IRserver can service any IG, regardless of the platform, if that IG is compliant with the server interface. Configuration management is simplified for site personnel, as the IR environment is specified on a single system that affects all systems playing in the exercise. Only a single runtime IRserver license is needed for an entire simulation network. This requirement passes on cost savings to the end user. All VRSG licenses (from version 4 and higher) are IRserver ready. Specifically, no modifications will be required to a given VRSG license to enable it to respond to the IRserver messages. An active IRserver is the only requirement for a VRSG visual system to become physics based IR enabled.

This image shows MetaVR IRserver used in ZedaSoft's virtual cockpit application for Lockheed Martin's F-16 simulator. Image courtesy of ZedaSoft, Inc.

IRserver outputs

During an exercise, the IRserver periodically updates the display intensities of all the materials used in the simulation. The IRserver can operate in a static time mode, where the time-of-day remains constant, or in a progressive time mode where the time of day automatically increases with real time. In addition, you can advance the simulation to an arbitrary time. The outputs of the IRserver belong to one of three categories:

• Material display intensities
• Atmospheric attenuation properties
• Sky intensity modeling

A 24-hour cycle IR view from VRSG in increments of 1 hour starting at 12:00 midnight.

Multiple types of IR sensors can be simulated simultaneously on the IRserver. A given simulator can have a homogeneous or heterogeneous series of IR sensors all simultaneously supported in real-time. An unlimited number of IR senor models can be run on the IRserver the only practical limitation being performance degradation as you begin simultaneously simulating more and more IR sensor simulations.