Operation Flashpoint Creators Get 'Serious'

Operation Flashpoint creator Bohemia Interactive (BI) has announced its new 'serious game' engine Virtual Battlespace 2 (VBS2), which is intended for military use such as training small teams in urban encounter tactics, and is also intended for non-military usage such as incident response or terrain visualization. The firm is showing VBS2 at a simulation convention, I/ITSEC, in Orlando, Florida from November 28 to December 1. According to Bohemia Interactive, which has been guided by comprehensive feedback from various organizations including the USMC and the Australian Defence Force, BI has developed VBS2 as a flexible and scalable simulation solution, which is being driven by the Real Virtuality engine, also used for the Operation Flashpoint PC and console titles. New data streaming technology allows VBS2 to support terrain areas of over 100 x 100 kilometers in size and potentially millions of terrain features such as buildings and vegetation. Moving grass and trees and ambient life such as insects and birds provide extra realism, as does improved physics and AI. In addition, VBS2 has a terrain editing tool, Visitor 3, that will support direct import of terrain and shape data allowing customer organizations to easily recreate any area of operation (AO) in the simulation. VBS2 is shipped with a powerful scenario editor, and also provides a template-based scenario creation system designed to reduce the time spent in mission design.