GL Studio Puts Simulators On The Desktop
By: Rob Reilly
Monday, November 27, 2006 09:58:19 AM EST
URL: http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/reports/6333/1/
Sophisticated Desktop Environments
In the latest multi-million dollar training simulators, pilots get to shoot the bad guys out of the virtual sky, while infantry men practice driving their vehicles over virtual desert terrain.
Today's sophisticated virtual trainers immerse the soldier in ever more realistic combat situations. Simulators save equipment for the real thing and ensure that a trainee can make mistakes and still be around to learn from the experience.
What about all the people behind the lines servicing equipment, testing systems, or performing dangerous, life-threatening jobs?
Just as in pilot and armored vehicle training, the trend to use expensive actual hardware, for today's maintenence and service training programs is being reduced in the military community.
DiSTI's GL Studio package lets the instructional designer integrate photo-realistic objects into their simulations that react just like the real parts. The parts influence the performance of the systems and can accurately behave according to the laws of nature. Unscrew an important connector from a simulated jet engine and it will stop running.
GL Studio is a Object Oriented (OO)-based tool that can use photos, as well as 2D and 3D models. The object code is not only standards based, but human readable, thereby encouraging re-use and rapid prototyping. Models, parts, and assemblies can be inventoried and used in multiple projects.
Just about anything can be simulated with GL Studio objects. During an on-site visit I saw one trainer, that walks the user through wiring up a PC to a monitor, mouse, and printer. The monitor even showed the Microsoft XP desktop.
Another simulation modeled an entire F-18 jet aircraft. Access panels on the sides could be removed to show the underlying avionics modules. Modules could be removed and reinstalled. You could even use a simulated Fluke multi-tester to measure operating voltages and test components. All this from the comfort of a desktop PC and monitor.
The simulations aren't slow or jerky, either. In testing, display refresh rates have been in the neighborhood of 1000 frames per second.
Who Is DiSTI?
DiSTI, based in Orlando, was born out of the University of Central Florida's Technology Incubator program. The business wanted to provide networked and ultra realistic, high-quality visual simulation tools, to support military and commercial markets.
Today, 95% of DiSTI's revenue is generated by Department of Defense (DoD) military training projects, although the company has started crossing over into the commercial/private sector. GL Studio customers include the FAA, NASA, the US Army, the US Navy, Lockheed-Martin, and others.
In 1997/98 an A10 flight simulator was the company's first contract. It was funded by Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) dollars. An A10 multi-window display demo for Linux based machines, that lets you click buttons and spin dials, can be downloaded in .tgz format.
DiSTI now has 240 customers with 400 users. They've seen growth of about 150% in the last two years.
Platforms and Features
Versions of GL Studio are available for Microsoft Windows, Linux, and the Java environment. DiSTI has recently completed FC5 and SUSE 10.0 ports. They will release 64-bit version shortly.
Naturally, in order to run smoothly at full speed, hardware accelerated OpenGL is needed on the display machine. The nVidia graphics cards are well supported under Linux.
It's possible to use software acceleration, although the performance is not great. Refreshes and video quality depend on the number of objects and actions taking place in the scenes.
The choreography of a simulation, across machines, can also be complex. For example, DiSTI has an E6-B trainer (Prowler aircraft command and control), that uses 25 monitors and 10 PCs.
C++ is used for programming of the interfaces (object models) and behaviors under GNU Linux. Windows users can use Visual C++ on that platform. Java is used for Web applications, with the JRE 1.4.x or later series runtime. The 3-D objects also work with Java Beans and Java Swing. DiSTI also has embedded C++ support for use in safety critical systems.
Graphics are edited with applications like the Gimp and Photoshop. The DiSTI In-house graphics artists use 3D Studio Max.
Customers can create all their objects from scratch, if they want. A less time consuming process is to create the objects based on photos or CAD models. The movable parts of the object are left off (like gauge hands) or cut out (like a rolling counter). This static object becomes the mask and then the moving parts of the display are coded using GL Studio. When the objects are brought together in the simulation, the hands can spin around the center of the gauge or the numbers can roll over in the little cut-out window.
The process keeps the number of animated objects to a minimum and lets designers build inventories of commonly used objects for use with other objects.
DiSTI recommends that management of the objects be based on the design file, not the generated code.
Wrapping Up
DiSTI offers a basic single seat license for the GL Studio editor at $10,800 and includes one year of support. Runtime licenses are available, but you'll need to call for pricing.
If you only need a couple of objects for your project, DiSTI can custom build models to your specifications.
GL Studio gives instructional designers the tools to build ultra realistic simulations, that behave just like the real parts. For companies wanting to build a variety of high quality desktop simulations, GL Studio is a worth investigating.
Rob Reilly is a consultant, trend spotter, and writer. He is a contributing editor for Linux Today. He advises clients on portable business computing and presentation technology integration. You can visit his web page at http://home.earthlink.net/~robreilly.