Commercial Tools for DIS/HLA Dynamic Terrain

A dynamic Environment driven by real-world data is a crucial element in Distributed Interactive Simulation (DIS). The synthetic Environments Program's Dynamic Terrain and Objects (DTO) project has developed an architecture for including a dynamic environment in distributed simulations. However, to date, heterogeneous applications have not been to interoperate. In addition, the long-term success of the current design is limited by the absence of an implementation within supported commercial tools. MaK proposes to integrate the dynamic environment technology developed under the DTO project into its commercial DIS products. The VR-Link DIS Toolkit will support the exchange of dynamic environment data using the current DIS mechanism or HLA, and the Mak Stealth will be able to graphically depict terrain changes. In addition, we will develop a prototype for dynamic Terrain Information Generator (DIG) capable of rapidly mapping real-world data into DIS environment. Because of Mak's unique position as vendor ofthe world's most widely used commercial DIS toolkit and Stealth, we can insure that this promising new technology will be propogated widely and inexpensively throughout the DIS community.