I/ITSEC trip--(blog removed due to extreme photo content)

#1 Awesome!

#2 Wow that's one heck of a display. That's like something out of Southwest Research Center lol.

#3

Quote:3 Torque players actually climbed a building (interior) on the inside, got onto the roof, watched a helicopter driven by a multi-million dollar simulator land on their roof, and then mounted the (TGE) vehicle in their own clients...and then proceeded to be evacuated by the manned module helicopter.

I can't believe that! that's just... amazing! I'm really happy that I found GG and I have TGE/TSE ;)

#4 Ughhh...and my AI advanced Kork is still getting lost in Great Temple....hehehe..

What can I say....maybe..I drool...:)

#5 ...Wow!

That is fantastic! ...I want to play :O)

Seriously, that is really great.

But am I the only one wondering WHY the military/government doesn't already have the most advanced network on the planet already doing this?!? Wasn't this already done in a game called PlanetSide?

Having said that, I have no doubt that they are moving in the right direction if that direction takes them toward Garage Games.

Good job guys! Your future is looking so bright your gonna need shades.

#6 @Todd: Good observation, so I wanted to clear this up a bit: Military simulations have been networked for quite a while now--DIS was started back in the early 90's. The major event performed here is integrating game technology into the already existing military networking capability (DIS).

The big difference is that until now, it was multi-million dollar simulators (which are MUCH more complicated than Torque, PlanetSide, or any other game technology) networked with other multi-million dollar simulators. What L3 accomplished is a demonstration that Game Engines, and Torque in particular aren't just pretty scenes and FPS shoot 'em ups, but serious contenders in the military space when used in proper roles.

Also, keep in mind that in your PlanetSide example (and of course in Torque), it's MUCH easier to network together a client and a server that are using the same exact code base...in the demo here at i/itsec, none of the 5 primary applications shared a lick of code. Each and every application was completely separate not only in development, but in many cases even in language used to develop the software.

#7 @Stephen,

Yup, like I said, Fantastic! That IS an amazing achievement. So what made the magic happen? Was it the beauty of Torque or a just a butt load of gum and duct tape to get them all rubber bands working together?

#8 It is the DIS and then HLA protocols that made them inter-operable.

These are publically available afaik, so in fact anyone can go in there and write a DIS/HLA <-> TGE pipe. Nothing particularly difficult, just takes the time to get it workin :)

Man, I look at all those big monitors and manned heli's and stuff and I cry :)

Great plan Stephen!

I wonder why you think that multi-million dollar simulators are more complex than torque? From what point of view? I doubt the code complexity for the most part is more complex. Undoubtedly the simulation is more complex, but put some real physics into torque and I honestly dont see, other than hardware specifics what is so complex about military technologies.

I've seen plenty of dumb hardware that sold for near on a few million quid which would quite easily be surpassed by consumer technology given a year or so.

I like the integration that L3 did though. Great stuff.

#9 Hehehe just noticed the third row of shots at the right.. the "render hardware" shot... are the military REALLY into case-modding? :))

Thats just cool. "Sarge, why isnt my water cooler glowing?", "Dont know Sir!, but that window is really tricked out Sir!"

#10 Awesome, I'm working on getting my game that good. It might take me a while. =)

#11 Very cool to see them using torque.

I want that PC!

#12 That's neat to see everything integrated together. Soon enough Neal stephenson's "metaverse" will be here.

#13 I love reading about the various ways Torque is used and simulation is one area that I find to be extreamly interesting. I'd give my right arm for a full motion F-16 simulator, that is if I didn't need my right arm to use it :( I guess I'll just have to stick to playing Falcon4:AF (if you can call it play when it took nearly a month before I got to the point of firing a missile :P)

I was gonna comment on how cool the nasa banner looks, but you already mentioned it :)

#14 @Todd - The military likes to use "COTS" Commercial off the Shelf products as much as possible. They do have a huge research budget. At one point I spent about a year working directly under Dr Brendan Godfrey SES , director of Air Force Research Lab. Got to see first hand the acquisition process on various projects. Mostly under SBIR or Small Business Innovation Research. Got to see a lot of mom and pop companies bid on various things from spatial disorientation to laser defense systems. Sorry al the displays and stuff set off my memories. I don't know if SBIR is still running but it would be good for them to look into for potential contracts. I am sure you guys are a step ahead on that.

#15 Excellent to see this thing come together (and boy did it!). Great work pulling it together L3 and Stephen, now get us some videos of this stuff in action!

#16 I really like the progress on this. Keep up the good work.

#17 Pretty Spiffy!

#18

Quote:I don't know if SBIR is still running but it would be good for them to look into for potential contracts.

AFAIK, it's been a part of the Small Business Administration grant/loan spectrum for a while. There are grants and such you can get from the SBA to help research things the government is interested in (everything from stuff like this to alternative energy to other technologies).

#19 @phil - I think DIS is available but HLA isn't really. You will need an RTI to run HLA and they aren't really widely available. I think there is a linux RTI that is opensource available but I forget the name of it at this time.

#20 Very Cool Indeed! On a side note, you can easily wallpaper your house with these images at the size that they are!!! Seriously for example at 72 dpi just one of these images is over 4 x 2.5 FEET!!!

http://www.dummies.com/WileyCDA/DummiesTitle/productCd-0764595806.html

:) j/k