Advertisement

VBS1 USMC Screenshot
(click to view full)

DID has covered the uses of modern video games by modern militaries, from the well-known America’s Army game (since adapted to become a CROWS weapon station trainer in addition to a recruiting/training tool), Britain’s use of the best-selling Half-Life platform in DIVE2 to train troops for Afghanistan, even DARPA’s request for a more realistic war sim and some hilarious specification suggestions.

Now the US Marine Corps is joining Australia and New Zealand in licensing the Virtual Battlespace gaming engine from Bohemia Interactive, the creators of the Operation Flashpoint series and the forthcoming Armed Assault. The USMC’s Enterprise License provides an unlimited number of VBS1 and VBS2 licenses to the Marines for use in tactical training, mission rehearsal and experimentation.

Founded in 1999, Bohemia Interactive is an independent game development company, with studios in Czech Republic and Australia. The range of features enabled by VBS goes significantly beyond many game options in use elsewhere, however…

Virtual Battlespace’s advanced squad management system enables participants to efficiently issue orders to both human and AI squad members as well as coordinate both lethal and non-lethal tasks. Real-time simulation of weather (including tides) is included, and participants may operate weaponary, drive vehicles, and fly aircraft within the simulation for any training or analytical purpose. Militaries tend to have very specific requirements, however, and so Bohemia Interactive will deliver a wide range of VBS1 modules and improvements including the USMC1 pack, After Action Review 3 (AAR3), Instructor Interface and other USMC-specific enhancements.

The system can be easily deployed on laptops or desktops over a LAN or through the Internet, and supports combined arms training for large numbers of networked participants. That’s not unusual.

C2PC
(click to view larger)

Thanks to LVC (Live-Virtual-Constructive) Game by Calytrix, however, VBS1 and VBS2 will also be integrated into the USMC’s DVTE network, seamlessly interoperating with http://afmsrr.afams.af.mil/index.cfm?RID=MDL_AF_1000066”>military simulations such as JSAF. The DVTE will soon leverage a wide range of VBS2 enhancements including command and control functionality, modifiable agent-based AI and real-time mission editing. VBS1 and VBS2 may also be integrated with C2PC (the Marines’ version of Blue Force Tracker et. al.) to provide a high-fidelity, networked environment linking the live and virtual domains. For instance, using these tools live marines in the field, tracked by GPS, could interoperate during an exercise with virtual entities controlled from within a USMC simulation centre, and be able to “see” those forces on their C2PC systems.

Bohemia Interactive will be directly supporting both the USMC and Joint Combined Training Centre (JCTC) at I/ITSEC 07.

Finally, Bohemia Interactive is working closely with the USMC as a sponsor to finalize Virtual Battlespace 2 (VBS2), a completely new product based upon their next-generation game engine Real Virtuality 2. It will be accompanied by the Virtual Tool Kit (VTK), a project designed to allow the end user to modify every aspect of the simulation. Configuration, weapon and unit editors, easier and more functional terrain and modelling tools, easily modifiable artificial intelligence behaviours, an API for ‘plugging-in’ new AI models, deformable terrain and a range of other features are currently envisaged/ expected.

See full release.