Our new workflow demonstration aims to show a concrete example of how the full suite of Presagis commercial software tools can be used in development of simulation applications – from content creation to scenario development and visualization.
The objective of this demonstration is to enhance a terrain database area with a new building model as well as new vector data to represent the roads in that region. This new data will add an extra level of fidelity to the simulation by enhancing the visual rendition of the scenario, as well as allow entities to realistically navigate through the environment.
View the video highlights of this demonstration on our web site or on the Presagis YouTube channel.
Getting Started
We begin this demonstration with the creation of a workflow using the Presagis Utilities Manager. A new addition to the Presagis software portfolio, Utilities Manager makes it very easy to configure and launch all of the tools that are used in a given project.
Viewing & Updating the Synthetic Environment
Before adding new elements to the existing synthetic environment, it was important to review the contents of the current terrain database. Using Thea Lite, which offers support for many terrain formats and is easily configurable, we were able to quickly load CDB terrain in order to view the areas that needed additional development.
The first enhancement to be made is to add a geo-specific building to the scene. Using Creator, we can create buildings and other 3D models through traditional modeling or by using wizards to quickly create content based on user-specified parameters. The built-in validation tools in Creator allow the user to verify that the resulting model complies with rule sets, including elements found in the CDB specification.
The new building is then associated with a point feature defined in the project’s vector data using Terra Vista. At the time of compilation, it can be exported to multiple output formats, including a CDB repository for correlated terrain that will be used in our computer generated forces (CGF) tool, STAGE, and in our 3D real-time image generator, Vega Prime.
Terra Vista also offers a vector editor that allows the manipulation and creation of data when no source GIS information is available. In this demo, we leverage this functionality to digitize a road that will be used by vehicles in the resulting simulation.
The Utilities Manager can also be used to launch applications from other vendors. In this example, we are using it to configure and start Global Mapper to review some of the CDB database that was produced by Terra Vista. Since it’s a repository of source formats, Global Mapper is able to read and display the Vector data that it produced and the imagery that was imported in the project.
Developing the Simulation Scenario
With the synthetic environment now updated and in place, the next step is to use STAGE in which the updated data can be used to enhance the visual acuity of the scene and in which ground vehicles can use the new road data to navigate the environment intelligently. Entities are first instantiated from a library of platforms in a scenario, then given individual parameters and missions to react intelligently to the situations that they encounter.
During the execution of the scenario, entities carry out their missions, using information from their surrounding environment to perform tasks such as entity detection, engagement, selecting alternate paths when the road is blocked, and reacting to events in the simulation. The simulation can be viewed in the STAGE top-down view or by using the built-in STAGE 3D Viewer based on Vega Prime. The simulation information can also be sent to other viewers that support DIS, HLA, or CIGI.
Communicating with 3rd Party Applications
The final step is the demonstration of how STAGE inter-operates with third-party applications such as Google Earth. The integration between these two applications is established using a gateway produced using SIM OneNet to convert DIS traffic from STAGE into KML data for Google Earth.
This entire process illustrates how users can rapidly link Presagis products and any third party applications in order to seamlessly integrate into existing architectures.
I hope that you have found this walkthrough of this demonstration interesting. Stay tuned for more demonstration walkthroughs in the coming months.
