Bohemia Interactive Simulations

Bohemia Interactive Simulations, is a global simulation software company, spinoff of studio Bohemia Interactive Australia (BIA).

History

BIS began as spinoff studio Bohemia Interactive Australia (BIA), formed by Bohemia Interactive Studio and David Lagettie, where joint development of a special military training simulation program VBS1 or Virtual Battlespace 1 began in December 2001. The Virtual Battlespace software series is widely used as a desktop simulation software for training among western military organizations.^[2] The company's customers include the United States Army, the United States Marine Corps, the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence, NATO, the Australian Defence Force, the Canadian Armed Forces, and the Swedish Armed Forces. Today, the company has offices in the United States, the United Kingdom, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Australia.

VBS1

After thorough testing and field use (in cooperation with United States Marine Corps), VBS1 was made available in the fall of 2002 for qualified government clients and military organizations. On May 21, 2004, VBS1 underwent limited public distribution. On August 14, 2004 it was released for North America; distribution was handled by Coalescent Technologies. According to the company, funding through Australian Defence Simulation Office helped add a number of improvements to VBS1 including making it HLA/DIS compliant and improving the after-action review feature in its next iteration, VBS2.^[3]

VBS2

Development on VBS2 began after the Australia Defence Force purchased an enterprise license of VBS1 in 2005.^[3] During the development of VBS2,the company worked with Calytrix Technologies to develop the VBS2 HLA/DIS gateway.^[3] The company also established a team of developers in the Czech Republic to "support real-world terrain import" and create tools for developers ^[3]

In 2008, most of development operations were moved to Prague, Czech Republic under newly formed Bohemia Interactive Simulations. Subsequently, BIA was integrated as Asia-Pacific arm of Bohemia Interactive Simulations and Pete Morrison, previously Lead Developer, was appointed CEO.

Riverside Acquisition

In January 2013, The Riverside Company, a New York-based private equity firm, acquired Bohemia Interactive Simulations for an undisclosed amount.^[4] The Orlando Sentinel reported that The Riverside Company expected to see "across-the-board growth" in the Bohemia Interactive Simulations.^[4]

TerraSim Acquisition

In April 2013, Bohemia Interactive Simulations acquired Pittsburgh, PA-based TerraSim Inc., described as a "technology leader in commercial products enabling the rapid production of correlated terrain for visual, constructive, and serious game simulation systems".^[5] In an interview with Defense News, Co-CEO Pete Morrison said that Bohemia Interactive Simulations' reason for purchasing for the company was to better integrate TerraSim's TerraTools suite of terrain generation tools into VBS.^[6] TerraSim's products also are widely used by military simulations for terrain development, including the U.S. Army, U.S. Air Force, and Lockheed Martin.^[6]

VBS3

In June 2013, the U.S. Army announced that it had awarded its 5-year Games for Training contract as part of a joint effort led by Calytrix Technologies and assisted by partner companies SimCentric Technologies, and Alelo. The company unveiled an early version of VBS3 at the annual exhibition I/ITSEC in December 2013. The company listed a range of new advancements including the game engine's ability to support larger models, massive terrains, and higher fidelity graphics.^[7] The company also announced a number of performance improvements, including procedural generation of terrain at run-time.^[7]

Bohemia Interactive Simulations released VBS3 v3.0 to the U.S. Army in March 2014. Within a few weeks, thousands of soldiers had downloaded VBS3 from the Army's MilGaming portal.^[8] The company also announced performance improvements for fast-air simulation, including real-time object aggregation and sub-pixel rendering.^[9] In May 2014, Army Times reported on a special plug-in developed in VBS3 for the U.S. Army that allows soldiers to assign physical training scores and weapons qualifications to their avatars in the simulation.^[10]

Bohemia Interactive Simulations announced the release of VBS3, version 3.4, to commercial customers in July 2014.^[11]

Performance Improvements

The company announced a series of performance improvements to its game engine in 2013 and 2014 including technology that enables fast air simulation over large cities, supports massive paged terrain, and allows for the development of high-fidelity, complex and interactive models. In December 2013, the company released a series of video demonstrating capabilities for creating destructible buildings, improved vehicle movement, and procedural snow.^[12] In March 2014, the company said it had improved rendering performance by developing "object aggregation^[13]" technology that "resulted in far fewer draw calls to the graphics card."^[14] Bohemia Interactive Simulations also stated that it had completed a large, interactive model of the Type 45 Destroyer with 300 compartments as well as "functioning doors, lights, davits and guns" for the Royal Navy.^[15] In early September 2014, the company's Co-CEO Pete Morrison demonstrated a 2200 x 2200 km terrain of the eastern United States at GameTech 2014 in Orlando.^[16]

Image Generation

The company announced in September 2014 that it was developing a game-based image generation product called VBS IG.^[17]

Benefits of Game-based Simulation

U.S. Army Games for Training chief Marco Conners said in an Army Times article that VBS3 "enables the leader to look at their squad or platoon and see where he can improve their performance capabilities”.^[11] Others have touted the ability of game-based training to reduce time and risks in training exercises.^[11][18]

Government Organizations and Companies using Virtual Battlespace

Virtual Battlespace is widely used by western military organizations. According to Bohemia Interactive Simulations, "More than 19 NATO nations and nine partner nations as well as three NATO entities use Virtual Battlespace (VBS) products in their simulation centers."^[19]

• Through a multi-partner contract with the U.S. Army, Bohemia Interactive Simulations provides VBS3 for the Army's Games for Training program.^[20]
• ARES Security Corporation announced in September 2014 it is using Virtual Battlespace 3 for its product BluTrain.^[21]
• NSC uses Virtual Battlespace for a UAV training system used by the UK Army.^[22]
• Airbus Defence and Space developed a NATO-accredited forward air controller simulator system for the French Air Force using VBS2.^[23]
• Polish manufacturer OBRUM used VBS2 for its SK-1 armored personnel carrier.^[24]
• TELDAT used VBS2 to test the interoperability of its Battlefield Management System JASMINE.^[25]
• The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory developed a seated dismounted soldier training system for the U.S. Marines.^[26]
• Norwegian Defense Research (FFI) used VBS2 to experiment with augmented reality technology.^[27]
• LaserShot uses VBS for its small arms training solutions.^[28]
• Meggitt's FATS M100 can be integrated with VBS2 and VBS3.^[29]

Interoperability

Through its HLA/DIS gateway, Virtual Battlespace can be made interoperable with other hardware and software. Virtual Battlespace is used in conjunction with constructive simulation software such as OneSAF and JCATS.

Developed training programs

• VBS1 (Windows) - November 2006 - 2002, 2004 (worldwide)
• VBS2 (Windows) - April 2007 (worldwide)
• VBS3 (Windows) - July 2014 (worldwide) ^[11]

The company offers courses covering different aspects of Virtual Battlespace training and simulation, including administration, scripting, importing and rigging models, and terrain generation.^[30]

External links

• Company website

References