Gaming and HLA 1516 Interoperability within the Swedish Defence

1
Gaming and HLA 1516 Interoperabilitywithin the
Swedish Defence
Adam Backlund Björn Waller Swedish Air Force
Combat Simulation Center
Björn Möller Björn Löfstrand Pitch Technologies
Robert Virding Swedish DefenceMaterial
Administration
Jouni Lindqvist Calisto Data AB
05F-SIW-118
2
Overview of this Paper Four Perspectives
What is Game Technologyand what can we learn?
Interoperability in the Game industry versus
the Defence industry
A technical implementationof gaming and HLA
1516interoperability
An example of providingreal life valueGaming
and HLA 1516in Peace SupportOperations training
3
Some Background

• Defence MS Industry
• Customers operations are required to
  interoperate and so are their simulations.
• MS needs to produce realistic and operationally
  valid training experiences or analysis metrics.
• VVA important part of the process.
• Requirements for interoperability explicitly
  stated during acquisition.
• Open interoperability standards used since 90s
• Systems maintained for many years or even decades
• Procured by a small number of large customers.
• Long-term customer relationships
• Expensive products

• Gaming Industry
• Aimed at giving an entertaining experience to the
  end-user.
• Defense-related titles very popular
• Customer lock-in desirable, especially for
  platform games. Interoperability between titles
  seldom available.
• Compatibility with existing hardware is an
  important factor when purchasing but not
  interoperability with other titles.
• Purchased by a large number of small customers
  through mass-market channels.
• Little direct customer influence on a title
• Few games are best-sellers many games flop
  commercially.
• Inexpensive products

4
Game Technology
Defence MSreuse potential
Modifications Tools
Many opportunities but few realized
Game level editors, Terrain editors, ...
Game Engines
Many opportunities but few realized
Everything but the content
Middleware
Many opportunities but few realized
Physics, AI, networking, ...
Low-Level APIs
Open GL, MS Direct X, ...
Already major benefits
Hardware
Already major benefits
3D Graphics, Audio, Controllers, ...

• Peer-to-peer
• Client-server
• Client-server clusters

Multiplayer game architectures
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Why Games Dont Use OpenInteroperability
Standards

• Tailored performanceNeed performance optimized
  for a certain title running on computers and
  networks meeting minimal requirements.
• Game Play ExperienceNeed for a fine tuned
  experience for a particular title.
• ComplexityDifferent multiplayer architectures,
  protocols, shared virtual environments, fidelity,
  resolution, ...
• No StandardsLack of de-facto standards and
  information models.
• Prevent CheatingNeed to protect on-line games
  from cheaters, especially commercial ones.
  Cheating is a sub-culture in gaming.
• Different Business ModelsSome are free or
  advertisement funded, others require a
  subscription.

6
A Defence Perspective onGame Technology

• Many technologies can be shared.
• Lessons learned can be reused, for example
  Massive Multiplayer Online (MMO) scalability
  approaches.
• Games usually trade validity, correctness and
  repeatability for an improved gaming experience.
  But not always!
• Interoperability approaches heavily tailored to
  game titles. This limits the reuse for defense
  purposes.
• No major driving factor for developing
  interoperability between titles in the same
  domain or between different domains.
• Limited experience of semantic and substantive
  interoperability issues in the gaming community.

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An MS Flight Simulator 2002to HLA 1516 Bridge

• Developed at GameStudio at the Swedish Defence
  Materiel Administration (FMV) together with
  FLSC.
• MS Flight Simulator chosen because of good
  dynamic models, availability of aircraft models,
  well-documented SDK and expected demonstration
  impact.
• The bridge provides a two-way gateway.
• FS 2002 protocol partially resembles RPR-FOM.
• FS 2002 provides players (platforms) and
  observers.
• Some limitations on how many airplanes that can
  be displayed simultaneously by FS 2002.

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Bridging Architecture




HLA 1516RTI
Direct-Play 7
FS2HLA
B

r




FSIM 2002Objects andactions
FSIM 2002Session

RPR-FOMObjectsandinteractions
i



RPR-FOMSimulation

d


g



e

• FSIM 2002 objects and actions mapped to RPR-FOM
  objects and interactions
• DirectPlay 7 used on the FS 2002 side. Can run up
  to 16 simulators using peer-to-peer mode or an
  unlimited number using third-party hosting
  applications.
• HLA 1516 (pRTI 1516) with RPR FOM 2.0 used on the
  HLA side.
• This architecture allows for great scalability on
  both sides.

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Challenges in Mapping FS 2002 withHLA 1516 with
RPR FOM 2.0
S
P

BaseEntity
PhysicalEntity
Aircraft
Platform
HLAObjectRoot

Spatial EntityType
These challenges are very similar to what is
common in defence interoperability

• Mapping of player names/identifiers between HLA
  and FS 2002.
• No force, site or application IDs in FS 2002.
• RPR FOM Entity Type needs to be mapped to FS
  models.
• No fire or detonation packets in FS 2002. Packet
  PLAYER_CRASH may be used.
• FS 2002 representation of coordinates and speed
  not clearly documented. Information found later
  in FSUIPC documentation.
• Speed represented as lat/long units per second
  and altitude speed in feet/s. Needs to calculate
  WGS84 XYZ velocities from this. No acceleration
  vector.
• Unclear dead-reckoning algorithms in FS 2002.

10
Some Use Cases

• Used for studies on future C2 prototypes
• LedsystT Federation
• SE/US SNR PA (FMV/CERDEC demonstration)
• FLSC
• Example The FS2HLA bridge handled 62 HLA Objects
  without problems. However, FS 2002 had some
  problems rendering them.
• FS 2002 has been used as a low-cost, low-fidelity
  generic aircraft human-in-the-loop for
• JAS 39 Gripen
• Hercules (C130/TP84)
• Argus (FSR 890)
• Huey helicopter (UH1)
• Generic UAV
• FS 2002 has as also been used as a low-cost
  federation visualization tool.

11
Using Games for PSO Training at the Swedish Air
Force Combat Simulation Center (FLSC)

• The Swedish Air Force Air Combat Simulation
  Centre (FLSC) is part of the Swedish Defense
  Research Agency (FOI)
• Provides operational simulation services for the
  Swedish Air Force and for international customers
  (training, SBA, etc)
• Provides manned simulators, computer-generated
  forces, powerful visualization equipment and
  interoperability capabilities for large-scale
  distributed simulations
• Use case Peace Support Operations (PSO) training
  for pilots and AWACS staff from different
  countries using the FS2HLA and Flight Simulator
  2002.
• Major topics include practicing international
  terminology and methodology during operations,
  typically patrolling non-flying zones.
• Adding FS2HLA and FS 2002 makes it possible to
  bring in logistics pilots to these exercises at
  very modest additional cost.

12
Setup at FLSC

• FLSC version of FS2HLA initially developed as a
  proof of concept to demonstrate the potential of
  mixing gaming and defense MS applications.
• Based on the same code as the GameStudio
  implementation.
• Simulates the logistic platform TP84 which is
  based on Hercules 130.
• Dedicated hardware controllers similar to TP84.

13
Conclusions

• Defence and game industries operate in completely
  different markets and under completely different
  conditions. The strong customer requirement for
  interoperability in the defence market is
  unmatched in the game market.
• Many game technologies can be directly reused for
  defence purposes. Example graphics adapters are
  directly reusable.
• Others, like game titles and moding, may be
  reused but possible limitations in realism,
  fidelity and VVA need to be understood.
• A bridge between HLA 1516 and MS Flight Simulator
  2002 with a scalable architecture has been
  developed.
• The technical challenges experienced have been
  very similar to what is usually seen in
  corresponding defence interoperability efforts.
• One use case is Peace Support Operations where
  logistics pilots can be added to existing
  exercises.
• This can enrich existing training and extend the
  type of training that can be given, all at a very
  modest cost.