Product Technology Blogs

Synthesize Your View

With the constant increase in computing power available on embedded targets, aircraft displays can evolve and introduce new functionalities. One of the most popular additions to display systems these days is synthetic vision.

Creating Display Applications for the Iconic Tablet

While the technology news world has been buzzing around the release of the new iPad, we are showcasing VAPS XT applications running on the popular tablet at our booth, #D21, during Avionics 2012.

VAPS XT Graphics Integration Flexibility

While the ability to easily bring VAPS XT graphics to embedded targets running Real-Time Operating Systems (RTOSs) is one that we often highlight, another facet of our Human-Machine Interface design tool enables us to integrate these graphics with third-party visual elements. After using a variety of integration techniques on recent projects, I thought that it would be interesting to highlight them here.

The Content Creation Workflow: Bring your environment to life with 3D assets

This article discusses how you can make your synthetic environments come to life through the creation of 3D assets, and is part of the Content Workflow and Runtime Connectivity focused series.

DO-178C:  New Guidance for Avionics Development

New guidance for certifying avionics software for commercial flight

My favorite things

With the year winding down, I would like to take a few moments to wish a happy holiday season to all of you and to thank all of those who visited us at the various trade shows that we attended during the year.

Anatomy of a Demo – Oil Rig Landing

A new demonstration that we are showing this year at I/ITSEC is an oil rig landing simulation that leverages our Vega Prime Marine module and STAGE computer-generated forces product to create a compelling environment. 

Anatomy of a Demo – SEGen Server

Launching a new product is always very exciting and SEGen Server has been no exception to that rule. As we have just announced, Presagis is offering a new technology that provides the ability to procedurally generate synthetic environments at run-time, based on  vector and terrain elevation with rules, textures, and models that indicate how to process the data based on the regions of the globe that it is situated in.

Anatomy of a Demo – Building a Multi-Domain Joint Simulation – Part 3

The last aspect of the Multi-Domain Joint Simulation demo that we are presenting at I/ITSEC  is the integration of tailored hardware to add to the realism of the UAV ground control station simulation. Check out parts 1 and 2 of this anatomy of a demo if you have not read them yet.

Anatomy of a Demo – Building a Multi-Domain Joint Simulation – Part 2

After discussing the three interactive stations that make up the new Multi-Domain Joint Simulation demo that you can find in our booth during I/ITSEC 2011, this second part of the Anatomy of a Demo blog takes a look at how STAGE is used to generate realistic traffic patterns in Salt Lake City’s suburban areas and aggregate information from all of the man-in-the-loop simulations.

Anatomy of a Demo – Building a Multi-Domain Joint Simulation – Part 1

For this year’s I/ITSEC show, one of the elements that we chose to showcase is how users can leverage our pre-integrated product suite to create point training solutions for different types of vehicles and how these individual simulations can work together in a multi-domain exercise. 

Creating Displays by Integrating the ARINC 661 Standard with Free-Form VAPS XT Elements

Presagis VAPS XT HMI design tool supports two primary modes of operation. The first is a free-form mode where the user can create displays using any of the built-in objects that Presagis provides with VAPS XT, along with the ability to create custom components.  The second mode is used to create displays that follow the ARINC 661 standard, a software architecture that is primarily used in commercial avionics but is also finding its way into military aircrafts, as well as other areas like military vetronics.

The Content Creation Workflow: Marking up 3D Buildings for efficient artificial intelligence and CGF simulation

In parallel with the Runtime Connections blog article series that I recently kicked off, I am starting a new series ‘The Content Creation Workflow’ where the main focus will be on the workflow between our content creation tools and how content created using one of our tools can be used efficiently in Presagis or third-party simulation environments.

The Runtime Connection: Displaying Flight Data on Your Avionics

One of the great strengths of the Presagis family of pre-integrated software products is how easy it is to create a complete simulation environment. In this new series of blog articles, we will take a closer look at how easy it is to establish connections between multiple Presagis tools.

Stay up to Date

Most software product release updates between major versions are to address customer feedback or to introduce new functionality that customers could immediately benefit from.  Over the past few months, three of our product lines have been updated; you should install these quickly if you use them on a regular basis.

Take a Spin with AI.implant

With the release of AI.implant 5.7, simulating realistic traffic environments just became very easy thanks to the introduction of many new features related to road navigation.

Simulating Flight in Style

Redesigning an application’s user interface is always a very exciting time as you get to take a step back, analyze what aspects of a tool worked well and which ones were a bit harder to grasp, as well as introduce new UI concepts to create an experience that will be both efficient and user-friendly.

Anatomy of a Demo: Armored Vehicles Demonstration

Another new demo that we are showing at ITEC is an armored vehicle demonstration, showcasing STAGE as the brains behind the simulation and Vega Prime is used for the real-time 3D visualization of the exercise as it takes place.

Anatomy of a Demo: Correlation and Interoperability demonstration (STAGE & VBS2)

First shown at I/ITSEC, our Correlation and Interoperability demonstration was a big hit and an immediate shoe-in for our ITEC lineup. This demonstration focuses on two key aspects of our technology: the creation of correlated terrain for multiple simulation environments and the runtime interoperability between these simulation tools.

FlightSIM’s Ultra-Detailed Computations

When someone asks me how high FlightSIM’s fidelity really is, I often refer back to a customer who asked me if FlightSIM simulated the deformation of the aircraft’s tires as it lands. After a quick check with engineering, the answer came back positive.

Anatomy of a Demo: VAPS XT HUD over external video

Another demo we developed for Avionics Europe this year is an embedded display application rendering an external video feed overlaid with textual and graphical symbology.

Anatomy of a Demo: Vehicle management system application & touch-screen

Trade shows are often the catalyst that drive the creation of new demonstrations and  Avionics Europe was no different!  One new demo that was created for the show is an interactive Vehicle Management system application.

OpenGL Support in our Embedded Graphics Suite

After recently writing about OpenGL support in our visualization tools, I thought that a similar exploration about our suite of Embedded Graphics tools would also be appropriate, especially with all of the embedded display work that I have been working on in preparation for the Avionics 2011 Exhibition and Conference in Munich, Germany.

Mastering the ARINC 661 Standard

Hot on the heels of our recent ARINC 661 training seminar hosted in Paris, I will be presenting a workshop entitled “Mastering the ARINC 661 Standard” at next week’s Avionics 2011 conference on Wednesday March 16, at 10:30.

The Presagis Technical Marketing Team Utility Toolbox

As we enter a new year, many of us strive to do things better than last year. One way to do this is by finding the right tools that will save you time in your daily work. After making many colleagues and customers very happy by sharing my list of favorite utilities with them, I thought that readers of the blog could also benefit from learning about some of these great tools. Beyond their usefulness, all of these tools are free to download and use.

Vega Prime and OpenGL’s evolution

Happy New Year and welcome back to the Presagis Technology Blog. Due to intense preparation for the I/ITSEC tradeshow, I had less updates in the last few months of 2010.

My resolution for the New Year is to post articles more frequently to keep you informed on everything that is happening at Presagis.

OpenGL is a graphics standard that has been around for close to two decades and is still evolving to meet the needs of graphics programmers and to take advantage of new features introduced with graphics card generation.

Anatomy of a Demo: Presagis Integrated Workflow Demonstration

While a few of the demonstrations that I dissected on the blog over the past few months have shown integration between a few of our products, we have never covered the entire end-to-end workflow that can be leveraged to produce a complete simulation environment until now.

Get the most out of…STAGE

The third article in this series on tips and tricks will focus on the latest 6.1 release of our flagship computer-generated-forces (CGF) product, STAGE.

Get the most out of…VAPS XT

After exploring tips and tricks in Vega Prime as well as the LynX Prime editor in my last blog entry, I decided to put the spotlight on VAPS XT in this second installment.

Get the most out of…Vega Prime

This blog entry is the first of a series of articles that will highlight useful features across each of our products.

Anatomy of a Demo: UAS Ground Station Operator Demonstrator

After writing an article on the power of combining VAPS XT and Vega Prime to create advanced simulation applications, followed by a deeper look at the applicability of this integration to create immersive training environment for a UAS Ground Station Operator, I got a chance to apply all of these concepts to create an extended UAS ground station operator demonstrator.

Creator:  Add new tricks to your 3D-model creation arsenal:  VBS2/P3D exporter & enhanced LOD generation

Available since March, Creator 4.1 adds some new capabilities features to its already very wide array of capabilities. The first of these features is the new P3D exporter that can output your models to the Virtual Battlespace 2 file format (VBS2).

A quick way to populate your synthetic environment

Many improvements and enhancements were made to STAGE with the release of version 6.0 last fall, starting with major updates to the tactical plan view and 3D viewer to integrate Vega Prime technology and continuing with the introduction of the CDB database format.

Anatomy of a demo: The Presagis Helicopter Pilot Technology Demonstrator

Flying aircraft, especially helicopters, has been a lifelong passion of mine.  So, when I had an opportunity to explore the inner workings of the HeliSIM v6.0 product late last year, I jumped at the chance.  Throughout my 25 year career in simulation, I have been involved in a number of very high fidelity fast-jet, transport, and helicopter platforms. 

Anatomy of a demo: The Presagis Integrated Simulation Demonstration

To ring in the new year, and to follow on the promise that I made before the holidays, I am going to take a closer look at one of the demonstrations that was shown at our booth during the I/ITSEC conference and exhibition in December 2009, namely our Integrated Simulation Demonstration.

Creating a simulated environment for UAS Operator Training

If you have been reading the Presagis Technology Blog regularly, you might remember an article that I wrote about a year ago entitled "Combine the graphics rendering forces of Vega Prime and VAPS XT". Expanding on the subject of mixing 2D and 3D graphics to create advanced simulation environments, I wrote an article for Military Embedded Systems magazine that was published in their October 2009 issue.

Winding down the year

Thanks to everyone who came by and visited our booth during the I/ITSEC conference in Orlando earlier this month. It was great to talk with a large number of current users as well as attendees that were interested in our COTS product offerings.

Almost time for our yearly reunion

For many people in the modeling and simulation industry, the end of November is not only synonymous with turkey and gravy but also with I/ITSEC. If you noticed that my posts have become less active in the last month, it is primarily due to my involvement in the preparation of the various technical demonstrations that we will be showing at our  booth during the exhibition.

AI.implant: Streaming the world intelligently

Back in May, I talked about the Multi-Edge Meta-Connection functionality that was introduced in AI.implant 5.4 to allow large terrain databases or virtual worlds to be divided into tiles that get stitched together at runtime in order to provide smooth navigation of large worlds. This enabling technology was key to the creation of the Terra Vista AI.implant output compiler and allowed users to start building large worlds for their simulation of intelligent characters.

NVIDIA offers Presagis optimized configuration for their hardware

When working with high-performance 3D applications, the two areas that tend to create the most headaches for developers are the selection of a video card and the installation and configuration of that video card's driver. Between choosing the right anti-aliasing mode, selecting the correct texture clamp mode, forcing mipmaps or not, and deciding if the application should always use vertical sync, getting the right performance out of a good video card for a specific application can sometimes become a process of trial and error.

Enabling advanced learning

While seeing Presagis technology deployed in a live simulation environment is always something that we take pride in, another great application of our technology that we appreciate is the integration of our products in the classroom.

VAPS XT: Bringing Digital Maps to your displays

Whether it's to perform flight plan operations, to display terrain awareness information or to present situational awareness data, the need for a Digital Moving Map integrated into VAPS XT has been a common user request. With the release of VAPS XT 3.1, the Presagis HMI design software offers a 2D Digital Map solution which integrates with the General Dynamics' SoftMap solution.

Vega Prime: After the light come the shadows

After talking about the new enhanced light lobes a few months ago, we will now look at the opposite end of the spectrum with shadows. No matter how nice and detailed a 3D model or terrain database is, its final look on-screen in a visual simulation will be largely driven by the quality of the Image Generation environment in which that model is rendered.

Terra Vista and Creator bring CDB to life

After announcing its intention to support the Common Database (CDB) specification across it entire product line last year, Presagis delivered the first components of the CDB production pipeline to customers over the past few weeks with the releases of Creator 4.0 and Terra Vista 6.0.

Creator: Speeding up airport creation

In talking with most visual database modelers, one of the common pain points that comes up is the length of time it takes to model airports. From placing all of the runways and taxiways in the proper geo-referenced positions to creating all of the paint markings and signs, creating an airport is a very time-consuming task. Starting in version 4.0, Creator offers a new optional module that dramatically speeds up the creation of airports and their related visual elements, simply called Creator Airports.

VAPS XT refines its user interface

As with any software environment, new versions are always an opportunity to enhance the user interface based on customer feedback. VAPS XT is no exception and version 3.0 adds many features that users will immediately be able to see and use when they upgrade.

AI.implant: Make bigger and smoother worlds

As discussed in an earlier article, AI.implant version 5.4 introduced a new compiler for Terra Vista that allows users to create large-area Navigation Meshes (A ‘navmesh' for short. These are three-dimensional representation of the world that AI.implant uses to control and move characters in an environment).

Vega Prime: Seeing the light

As in real life, light is very important in any type of 3D visualization environment to be able to see the terrain and various models that it contains, but also to give everything a realistic appearance. A lighting effect can quickly make a simulated environment look wrong or look picture-perfect. While ambient light has been a strength of Vega Prime for some time with its skylight capability, a new feature released as part of Vega Prime v.2.2.1, called Projected Light Lobes, addresses the ability to create realistic spotlights in the environment.

Create and edit your 3D models through the eyes of Vega Prime

While working on the creation of a 3D model in Creator, a graphic artist often has to go back and forth between the editor and the final image generator where the model is going to be used.  This is done in order to see the final result and validate how the model would look at different times of day or with different lighting conditions.

To address this need, a new viewing mode was introduced in Creator 3.4 based on the Vega Prime rendering engine.

VAPS XT: Record and playback your HMI interactions

Have you ever wanted to give a copy of an interactive VAPS XT application to a colleague without having to explain all of its functionality, or run a VAPS XT display without having to run the external simulation that drives your displays?
If your answer is yes, then the new Record and Playback (R&P) functionality introduced in version 2.3 of VAPS XT will quickly become your best friend.

Creator: Automate Tasks with the new Creator Scripting Engine

Found under a new menu labeled "Scripts" in the Creator 3.5 interface, the OpenFlight Script Editor is a new way to automate repetitive or complex tasks in the Creator modeling environment.

AI.implant & Creator: The power to create environments for intelligent simulations

As mentioned over the past few posts, one of the key themes across the recent releases of the Presagis product portfolio is integration. While some integrations are more prominent than others, such as the upcoming integration of STAGE and Vega Prime, others are a bit more discrete but can make a world of difference for users who work with many of our technologies. The latest version of AI.implant v.5.4, contains two integrations that are part of that second category, namely a plugin for Creator and a new compiler for Terra Vista.

Combine the graphics rendering forces of Vega Prime and VAPS XT

When creating complex simulation and training applications, it is often required to use more than one product to reach a final goal. An example of this would be the creation of a flight simulator that needs to display a 3D representation of the pilot's view, but also needs to render information about the flight instruments in the form of a heads-up display.

The Modeling and Simulation Community is more active than ever

It is always hard to tell how busy a trade show like I/ITSEC will be from one year to the next since many external factors can influence ongoing modeling and simulation projects or the creation of new ones.

Aeria comes to life

November is always a busy time at Presagis with the I/ITSEC Conference and Exhibit right around the corner. This year is no exception with the first live demonstrations of the Presagis Aeria vision at the show. In many ways, Aeria brings to life the goal that Presagis has had since its inception: to provide a fully integrated suite of COTS modeling and simulation products.

AI.implant:  A colorful scripting using a new standard language

If you have upgraded to version 5.3 of AI.implant, which was released earlier this year, you may not have noticed that a new interpretation option is available in the AI.de user interface when creating scripts.

VAPS XT: Improve Your HMI Embedded Performance

When running HMI displays on an embedded computer system, runtime performance is often the primary concern of system integrators since the hardware that they are running on does not have the processor speeds or high-performance video cards that are common-place in desktop systems.

Creator: Think about what’s inside

Creator has had a long history of helping graphic modelers create great-looking buildings, vehicles and environments. With an increasing focus on urban warfare and the need to provide more information about buildings to CGF applications, the new Building with Interiors Wizard provides a set of tools to speed up the creation of complex buildings.

Terra Vista: Populating the Virtual Battlespace

In recent years, the Virtual Battle Space system has been growing its user base in simulation environments that focus on ground forces and urban tactics.

Vega Prime: The earth is round after all

After introducing some impressive graphical features such as cloud shadows and water reflections last fall, the latest release of Vega Prime 2.2.1 stays close to the ground to introduce a new type of ocean called the Technique model.

Add comments to your HMI design

If you have ever written code in any programming language, you know how important comments can be to remember why you wrote your code a certain way or to make it easier to share code with your colleagues. 

Technology Blog Welcome

As you can probably imagine, a COTS software company that produces and maintains more than ten products is always buzzing with internal software development to implement new features, enhance the user experience and correct issues reported by our customers.