VT MAK announces the release of VR-Vantage 1.1
- Date:09 Nov 2009
VT MAK announces the release of VR-Vantage 1.1
VR-Vantage, which is built on OpenSceneGraph (OSG), consists of the MAK Stealth 3D information station; Vantage IG, a desktop image generator for viewing out-the-window scenes; and the VR-Vantage toolkit to extend the included visual applications or even build new applications.
VR-Vantage 1.1 continues to offer customers more value in their 3D visualisation software with new features, performance optimisations, and more integrated content. This release also marks the launch of SensorFX - an add-on module to VR-Vantage available from JRM Technologies.
SensorFX enables VR-Vantage to serve as a sensor scene generator rather than a visual scene generator. SensorFX models the physics of light energy as it is reflected and emitted from surfaces in the scene and as it is transmitted through the atmosphere and into a sensing device. It also models the collection and processing properties of the sensing device to render an accurate electro-optical (EO), night vision (NVG), or infrared (IR) scene. SensorFX is based on JRM's SigSim, SenSim, and GENESIS products. MAK's developers worked closely with JRM engineers to ensure that JRM's SensorFX module fits nicely into the VR-Vantage framework.
Along with support for the new sensor module, VR-Vantage 1.1 adds many other important enhancements and fixes:
- Visualisation of tactical graphics, including waypoints, routes, and areas
- Shader-based dynamic shadows cast on the terrain. (On by default for fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft, and for DI-Guy characters, but can be enabled for other entity types as well)
- Drop-down height-above-terrain lines for entities and other objects
- Visualisation of embarked entities, such as aircraft on the deck of a carrier and soldiers sitting in trucks
- Support for import of point features on geocentric terrains
- Improved prop extraction workflow and performance
- Faster load times for DI-Guy characters
- Now includes 34 of the highest-quality 3D visual models from Simthetiq
- Improved SpeedTree performance, enabling support for very large numbers of trees in your visual scene
- Greatly improved performance in paging of elevation data from local DTED files or streaming from servers
- Online help
- Support for Red Hat Linux (both RHEL 4 and RHEL 5), in addition to the Microsoft Windows platforms
The VR-Vantage 1.1 Toolkit was used as the foundation for the latest version of the recently released VR-Forces 3D GUI. The VR-Forces 3D GUI allows users to drag and drop models directly within the 3D scene to interactively create, place, and task entities.
Please see the Release Notes for a more complete list of improvements, bug fixes, and changes in VR-Vantage 1.1:
http://www.mak.com/relnotes/vrvantage1.1releasenotes.pdf