MAK Technologies has released VR-Vantage 3.0 for the MAK ONE suite. This major feature release includes improvements in visual scene quality, rendering performance, 2D and 3D informational graphics, and application programming interface (API) simplification.
VR-Vantage is dedicated to rendering real-time 3D scenes and 2D plan view displays of the synthetic environment. It is designed to be used in several distinct ways: as a pure Image Generator (IG) to provide realistic scenes for out-the-window or sensor views in simulators; as a standalone battlefield information station by overlaying informative graphics on top of realistic 3D scenes or 2D tactical maps; and in VR-Forces and VR-Engage to ensure correlation across all the components of users’ training and simulation systems.
Some of the features of the new release are listed below:
VR-Vantage now adds horizon-based ambient occlusion (HBAO) to the long list of graphics techniques that make scenes look realistic. HBAO makes interior corners darker (lowers ambient light) without the creation of additional art. This makes scenes look more grounded and realistic.
Tracked vehicles now move realistically as they turn, with different treads moving at different speeds. This allows for a more detailed visual representation of vehicles without additional simulation at the CGF level. This feature is a continuation of similar features added to VR-Vantage in the last few releases including wheels and treads that rotate correctly for the vehicle's current speed, and blades on RW and turbines that spin up or slow down realistically.
There have been significant improvements to CameraFX to correctly visualize IR illumination artillery rounds in both NVG and IR mode. These changes were made to directly improve the artillery model but apply to other sources of IR illumination in the scene as well.
Through the last several releases MAK has improved the visualization of localized weather. Localized weather allows for the specific weather pattern (snow/rain) to show up exactly where you want it – you can fly above it, drive around it, walk through it, or sail under it. This release adds sleet, snow, and hail to the types of weather that VR-Vantage can render within the synthetic environment. All the MAK ONE applications support the NATO Distributed Simulation Federation Object Model (NETN FOM) for communicating the location and type of weather.
