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Let’s Get Serious:Let’s Get Serious:Gaming Techniques for Gaming Techniques for Simulation and TrainingSimulation and Training
Jeff LeBlanc, MAK Technologies
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About MAKAbout MAK
Who we are Founded in 1990; Based in Cambridge, MA
Founders worked on SIMNET team
Pioneer in adapting game technology for military tactical trainers
What we do Develop distributed simulation tools &
toolkits for developers Use our tools to build military tactical
trainers
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Serious GamesSerious Games
Computer and video (console) games can be used for more than just entertainment Education / edutainment Marketing and advertising Social policy and management Training
The Serious Games marketplace is huge, rivaling the gaming or entertainment industries
Serious Games aim to provide training and education to the user, while also providing and engaging and entertaining experience The latter supports the former
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Serious Games HistorySerious Games History
Army Battlezone, by Atari in 1980 Late 80s saw SIMNET, by BBN, distributed
real-time simulation Edutainment was tried as a business model in
the 1990s. It failed to be profitable… Marine Doom, 1998, early attempt at training Serious Games Initiative launched in 2000
goal: "to help usher in a new series of policy education, exploration, and management tools utilizing state of the art computer game designs, technologies, and development skills"
Use game development techniques and technologies to build ‘serious’ tools
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SIMNETSIMNET
Military simulations have tended to be a bit "heavy" Dedicated hardware Physical proximity Expectations of mechanical accuracy
SIMNET changed that, providing a networked multi-user interactive simulation Support for hundreds of simultaneous users Grandfather of today's MMOs?
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Sons of SIMNETSons of SIMNET
Close Combat Tactical Trainer (CCTT) Improved visual displays, networking
Spearhead (MAK, 1998) Used many of the same underlying
technologies Showed a commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS)
PC could be used for training Gamespot gave it a 7.4!
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Seriously Unreal GamingSeriously Unreal Gaming
Gaming technology began to drive the simulation world
America's Army (2002), initially released as a recruiting tool Based on the Unreal 2 engine Adopted as a platform to build trainer apps
on MAK Game-Link, a toolkit to allow
Unreal games to interoperate with sims and trainers built to industry networking standards (DIS/HLA)
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Game-LinkGame-Link
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DIS/HLA ProtocolsDIS/HLA Protocols
Distributed Interactive Simulation (DIS) is a standard conducting “massively multiplayer” simulations Entity state information encoded into Protocol Data
Units (PDUs) and broadcast over the simulation network
Damage state, direction/orientation vectors, articulations, etc
Entity Type information encoded as 8-bit enums describing platform, country, and capabilities
Example: “1:2:225:1:3”1” is a US F-16 Falcon
Dead Reckoning is performed between updates
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DIS/HLA ProtocolsDIS/HLA Protocols
High Level Architecture (HLA) came around in 1996, providing an object-oriented specification for distributed simulations
Communication is managed by a Runtime Infrastructure (RTI) “middleware”
Individual members of the simulation are called federates. The total environment of the simulators is a federation.
The Federation Object Model (FOM) describes what the shared objects and events (interactions) are allowed in the simulation
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Interoperability IssuesInteroperability Issues
By adhering to the standards, simulations / trainers can be developed independently and work together
Important issues Acceptable entity types
Models, if required Terrain database
Coordinate systems Thousands of entities Expected visuals
Non-realistic display Symbology (2525B)
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Types of Serious GamesTypes of Serious Games
Social Impact Games lists over 200 games in a variety of categories: Education ("Algebots", "MeCHem") Public Policy ("Cyberbudget", "So You
Want To Be a Brooklyn Judge") Health and Wellness ("Ben's Game", "Re-
Mission") Business ("In$ider", "Virtual Leader") Military training ("Battle Command 2010")
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Battle Command 2010Battle Command 2010 Staff planning trainer
built using MÄK’s VR-Forces simulation engine
Users role-play staff officer positions in distributed game environment Maneuver,
Intelligence, Fire Support, Engineer, Logistics
Rehearse tactics & planning at brigade & below
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VR-ForcesVR-Forces
Object-oriented toolkit for Networked synthetic environments Requirements & operational analysis Simulation for strategic &
tactical decision-makers Embedded trainers Mission rehearsal
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MAK StealthMAK Stealth
3D virtual environment visualizer Provide the “God’s eye” view of the total
simulation Built on the Vega Prime graphics engine Game-like appearance, but different goals
Non-realistic rendering Thousands of entities Gigabyte-sized terrains
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Demo Time!Demo Time!
Time for a demonstration of VR-Forces and Stealth
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In ConclusionIn Conclusion
The Serious Games industry is entrenched, and growing
Game technologies are providing a low-cost alternative to the old ‘do it yourself’ solutions
Be aware of, and involved in, existing standards
Questions?