Gaming: The System

Today serious games are an integral component of individual and team training. Using LVC Game you are now able to connect multiple serious games with large constructive systems and live C2 assets to create a far broader and richer training environment. See how virtual and constructive systems work together.

Choose the right game for the right job.

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System Integration 101

At a marketing level the integration of different simulations, almost always from different vendors, is trivialized to almost ‘plug and play’, however the realities are quite different. Read our primer to get a head start on the domain.

Calytrix: Leaders in simulation integration.

Primer   

LVC Game / Integrating Everything

Live, Virtual and Constructive (LVC) systems integration is driven by standards, and there are many to choose from.

Calytrix's suite of LVC Game products allow the most popular serious games and training systems to connect directly with one another, and with military standard C2 and simulation systems.

Using LVC Game, Calytrix has developed a number of off-the-shelf products to support the most widely deployed games-based training systems so that users have an instant solution to solve their integration problems. No coding or development experience is required - these are off-the-shelf products that are ready to go.

LVC Game also ships as a Software Development Kit (SDK) to allow the creators of custom systems to rapidly add DIS/HLA/C2 capabilities to their products without having to write their own solution, gaining not only an immediate, extended feature set, but the ability to leverage a proven technology base that is continually updated and fully supported.

Whether you are the user of a training system, or writing your own, LVC Game has a solution to quickly and efficiently link in to the live, virutal and constructive domains.

LVC Game for the End User

As an end-user you have peace of mind that any system you acquire that uses LVC-Game for its systems integration will connect seamlessly into your training environment. Whether it is based on DIS or HLA, uses the RPR FOM version one or two, or even the JLCCTC ERF, LVC Game will take care of the details.

Not only this, but as new standards are added to the ecosystem you will gain new capabilities and integration options, all in a fully-supported package designed for the end-user, not the developer.

The range of Calytrix LVC Game products are sold and marketed as LVC Game for X, where X is any supported system from the growing list of partners below:

INTEGRATION PARTNERS


Partner Product Status Availability
Calytrix CSE AVAILABLE — Shipped standard with CSE
Steel Beasts AVAILABLE — Download Today Request
Prepar3D AVAILABLE — Download Today Request
SA Technologies AVAILABLE — Available on Request Request
Cry Engine Internal Sold as Integration Service Request

LVC Game for the Developer

For developers, LVC Game is also available as a Software Development Kit (SDK). The LVC Game SDK provides a simple and accessible means for serious games and other developers to connect their systems into the complex world of military simulation standards. By integrating LVC Game into your software system you instantly have access to all current and future supported DIS/HLA and C2 standards without the learning curve or costs associated with mastering this complex domain, or the burden of maintaining a custom solution.

Using the same SDK that our end-user products are built on, developers are presented with a light-weight, event-driven API that hides the complexities and specifics of technologies like DIS and HLA. With only a small effort, users can quickly connect to their systems through LVC Game and begin exchanging information with external systems.

Benefits of using LVC Game

LVC Game presents a number of clear benefits for simulation systems developers. Beyond an immediate capability enhancement from an API designed specifically to support serious games and training systems, LVC Game supports a broad set of platforms and tools, including:

  • Support all major versions of DIS protocol
  • Support all major versions of HLA (1.3, 1516, 1516-evolved)
  • Support all major commercial HLA RTI vendors (Pitch, MaK, Raytheon)
  • Support the Portico open source RTI
  • Support all major HLA FOMs (RPR1, RPR2, JLCCTC ERF)
  • Growing support for C2 protocols
Beyond the wide supported platform, the LVC Game library itself exists to provide a number of developer conveniences. These include:
  • Automatic dead-reckoning of all incoming and outgoing traffic
  • Advanced filtering to ensure your system can work in the largest constructive environments
  • Data-offsets to micro-adjust types in non-correlated environments
  • Built in monitoring and management tools to see what is happening on the network
Finally, in addition to the functionality delivered, the development kits are under ongoing development and are fully supported, meaning both you and your customers will have access to our team to help in build and post-delivery support.


Technical Notes

Configuration and Monitoring Tools

LVC Game ships with a browser-based configuration and monitoring tool. With a set of features that is growing every release, users can:

  • Monitor traffic on the network
  • Inspect the state of all local and simulation entities
  • Configure incoming and outgoing mappings - including intelligent capture of unmapped types
  • Export and import mapping sets to make transfer of configuration data simple
  • Configure entity offsets and overrides
  • Monitor the LVC Game log file for deeper analysis
  • Automatically generate support packages for when you need quick-fire help from the Calytrix support team

Inbound Entity Mappings

Inbound entities are those entities that exist in the external DIS/HLA "worlds" and are controlled by the external systems. Inbound entities can be mapped to any object in the local "game" world of the supported 3rd party product. For example, a DIS enumeration of "x x x x x x x" could be mapped to a model of an American F-18 aircraft in CSE. In that example, CSE would display its F-18 model according to the info retrieved by LVC Game from the outside worlds of DIS/HLA. Specifically, if the pilot in an external F-18 flight simulator were to turn on the afterburners and pull the aircraft into a vertical climb over St Louis’s airport, viewers in CSE in the simulated terrain area of St Louis’s airport would see overhead an F-18 with its afterburners on, climbing vertically.

Outbound Entity Mappings

Outbound entities are those entities that are created in the private world of the supported 3rd party product and controlled by that supported product. Outbound entities can be mapped to any external DIS/HLA values.  As a result, changes in position, speed, operational status, etc. in the "private world" models are broadcast to the external DIS/HLA worlds. In this way, external DIS/HLA programs like JSAF or OneSAF are kept up to date with the latest info about entities controlled by the LVC Game supported product.

Dead Reckoning

Dead Reckoning (DR) is the mathematical computation of the next likely position of a moving object based on its last known position and velocity.  Dead Reckoning is commonly required in simulation networks to display smooth movements while minimizing network load.  LVC Game performs DR calculations as a service to its supported products and supports all standard DR algorithms. LVC Game performs the specified calculations to generate new positions for each incoming entity between network updates. LVC Game also determines when to send a network update for outgoing entities based on the users choice of DR algorithm and configurable thresholds.

Geographic coordinate transformations

LVC Game transforms spatial coordinates between the external DIS/HLA worlds and the “private world” of the supported product. For example, many serious games products operate within small to medium sized terrain spaces, some as small as a few city blocks in area, others perhaps several square kilometres in area, and others perhaps many dozen square kilometres in area. At these smaller scales, the curvature of the earth is not significant and can generally be ignored. As a result, many game-technology products do not consider the curvature of the earth. Larger simulations, especially those that can operate on a global scale, must consider the terrain as a highly accurate representation of real earth.  LVC Game manages this divide by interfacing with the supported 3rd party product in its native spatial coordinate system yet simultaneously communicating with external DIS/HLA entities using "Round Earth" spatial coordinate systems.

A full Software Developers Kit (SDK)

Calytrix works with Development Partners to integrate LVC Game with their applications, thus enabling more and more 3rd party products with DIS/HLA and C2 compatibility.  Calytrix can supply an Application Programmer's Interface (in C++ API), sample code, and detailed documentation to permit integration of a new 3rd party product with LVC Game. Our experience has shown that integration can be achieved rapidly, with a proof-of-concept taking only a couple of days.

Resources / Find Out More


Calytrix support is just a phone-call or email away. Customers with active maintenance can contact Calytrix Support to:
  • Get Product Support
  • File Bugs
  • Access the Calytrix Knowledge Base
  • Download Software Updates
Contact Support Download Software
Part of Calytrix's Professional Whitepaper Series, the LVC Intergration Primer paper introduces the concepts of LVC-integration and discusses some of the problems that must be solved. This briefing-level paper is designed for anyone unfamiliar with LVC integration who wants to gain an appreciation of its complexities and the major issues involved.

 


 

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