VT MÄK upgrades VR-Forces 3D visualization software

VR-Forces 4.3.1 is a major maintenance release that greatly improves VR-Forces 3D visualization while simultaneously fixes a number of important defects.

VR-Forces is built using the VR-Vantage graphics engine. This release incorporates the significant improves to visualization found in VR-Vantage 2.0.1, such as:

• Improved Performance – Many improvements help scenes using streaming or direct from source terrains. The way features such as buoys and SpeedTrees are loaded into the scene has been greatly improved. Features containing lights can be instanced and point features are more efficiently clustered and instanced. For maritime customers, the buoyancy model has been improved to allow for a configured LOD which turns off the model to improve performance. Scenes with large numbers of DI-Guy characters perform much faster. The PVD is faster, with more efficient HAT (Height Above Terrain) line drawing.
• More Content – New high resolution 3D models of civilian aircraft have been added.
• Better Diagnostics – We have added several new features to help you debug your scene performance.
• Animated Observer View Switching – As you switch between saved Observer Views you can have a fly-to-view transition where the camera flies smoothly between points.

Other features added to this release include:

• Cockpit Instruments – You can now bring up cockpit instrument panels to help you intuitively monitor aircraft status, including altitude, attitude, airspeed, heading, and more. Instrument panels appear in separate windows, so they can be displayed on a separate screen if desired. VR-Forces ships pre-configured with a set of high-quality aircraft instruments built using DiSTI’s GL Studio, and users can easily configure VR-Forces to use additional GL Studio content as well (including ground vehicle dashboard instruments, etc.)
• Flashlight Mode – For people building a First Person player station, the observer supports a flashlight which can be controlled from the mouse for looking around at night.
• New Set Speed Command – Users can now instantly set the speed of the aircraft directly, instead of only setting the ordered speed. The set speed will be bounded by configured aircraft limits.
• Aircraft Carrier Demo – VR-Forces now ships with a new demonstration using scripts and tasking to manage a very busy aircraft carrier deck.

A complete list of the improvements can be found in the release notes: VR-Forces 4.3.1