Phantom Works chooses VT MAK’s VR-Vantage

Phantom Works, the advanced research and development unit for Boeing, has purchased a VT MAK One Enterprise license for VR-Vantage IG. Phantom Works is taking advantage of VT MAK One to license VR-Vantage IG for use inside reconfigurable cockpit simulators in five separate sites worldwide.

VR-Vantage IG provides Phantom Works with a set of image generation capabilities. Its software is used to render out-the-window scenes for first-person simulators. Its open architecture was designed from the ground up to offer flexible, high-performance visualization tools.

It can procedurally generate terrain directly from source dataincluding elevation, imagery, land use classification and features. It alsoallows for procedural generation of textures from land use data, which provideshigher effective resolution and eliminates artifacts such as baked-in shadows,cars and trees.

Textures for each land-use classification can change basedon season and location. VR-Vantage IG can auto-material classify globalterrains based on land-use data and feature data to enable accurate infraredsensor views.

VR-Vantage IG is capable of procedural generation ofairports from X-Plane/Digital Aeronautical Flight Information File airportdescriptions, including geo-specific runways, markings, taxiways, signs andlights. It also generates millions of trees and other vegetation directly onthe GPU, based on land use rasters or aerial features.

Customers can use the image generator to create and renderhigh-performance buildings, roads, etc. based on OpenStreetMap data for thewhole world, including cut-in roads. They can also procedurally add detail andquality to the world by adding procedural geometric noise to the elevationdata, and by adding convincing bump-maps based on slope and elevation ofmountains.

Built-in support for DiSTI’s GL Studio allows customers tobuild and prototype various cockpit instrument and tactical systems, criticalfor deploying reconfigurable flight simulators.

The image generator is built to be deployed on a variety ofCOTS hardware configurations from simple desktops to multi-channel displays forvirtual cockpits, monitor-based training systems and AR/VR components.VR-Vantage IG APIs make it possible to accommodate any training, simulation ormission rehearsal requirements. This approach also supports compatibility withcurrent, existing applications.