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SPRING 2010 : VOL 12 : No 1 |
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MÄK is Evolving! MÄK is pleased to announce that the next releases of the MÄK RTI version 4.0 and VR-Link version 4.0 will offer full support for the new HLA Evolved Standard. Both products are scheduled for release this summer in July. HLA Evolved is the latest version of the HLA Standard (IEEE-1516.2009) which offers a number of improvements on the HLA 1.3 and HLA 1516 (IEEE-1516.2000) standards. Perhaps the most significant is a Dynamic Link Compatible API: HLA Evolved integrates the SISO HLA DLC API into the HLA Standard allowing users to switch RTI’s without making any changes to their federates. There are some other important changes too: Modular FOMs, Update Rate Reduction, improvements to Reliability and Connectivity, and a number of much smaller changes which make using HLA easier. MÄK RTI version 4.0 will include libraries for all versions of the HLA Standard, including HLA 1.3, HLA 1516, and HLA Evolved. We are maintaining wire compatibility between HLA versions too! This means you can connect HLA 1.3, HLA 1516, and HLA Evolved Federates into the same federation with no special adapters or bridges. Additionally, we believe that some of the HLA Evolved features are so valuable that we wanted to provide a way for customers to take advantage of them without porting all their legacy federates to the HLA Evolved API. Since version 3.2, the MÄK RTI has allowed customers to use the Modular FOM and Update Rate Reduction features with only a few simple changes of their configuration files. This combined with wire compatibility makes it easy for customers to combine legacy federates and new HLA Evolved federates in a single federation while taking advantage of most of the new features offered by HLA Evolved. This strategy provides a technically easy and extremely low cost way to transition to the new standard. While MÄK initially will offer support for HLA Evolved with only the MÄK RTI and VR-Link, our other products will follow shortly. We plan to release versions of the MÄK Data Logger and VR-Exchange with support for HLA Evolved this year. VR-Forces and VR-Vantage support for HLA Evolved will come later. Please let us know your requirements.
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Users can now switch RTI’s without making any changes to their federates. |
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Product News: |
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We’re proud to announce VR-TheWorld Server, a new streaming terrain solution. Our focus on Terrain Agility has led us to develop VR-TheWorld to help our customers moving toward a direct-from-source, web-services-based approach to handling terrain data. This new solution supports a “virtual globe” style approach, familiar to any Google Earth users, where simulation and visualization applications stream terrain directly from a server as you move about the world. It brings a direct-fromsource, web-services-based approach to delivery of terrain data, bypassing the often time-consuming task of terrain database generation. The server was developed in conjunction with MÄK partner Pelican Mapping, a company that specializes in GIS, 3D visualization, mapping, and location-based services. You can deploy VR-TheWorld Server in your facility; on private, secure networks to provide streaming terrain data to simulation and visualization applications behind a firewall. VR-TheWorld Server can be easily populated with your custom data through a web-based interface. Or MÄK can provide data to meet project specific requirements. To give you a taste of the streaming terrain concept, weare offering an online service called VR-TheWorld Online – an instance of VR-TheWorld Server hosted in the cloud.VR-TheWorld Online delivers a global base map and a representative set of high-resolution areas. Users just point their client applications at VR TheWorld.com, and their 3D world is automatically filled with elevation data and imagery for any area of the globe as they fly through the world. VR-TheWorld Server and VR-TheWorld Online work out of the box with MÄK’s VR-Forces and VR-Vantage applications. And because they are built around open standards like WMS (Open Geospatial Consortium’s Web Mapping Service) and TMS (OSGeo’s Tile Map Service), any customer or 3rd party application that supports these standards (including web apps) can access VR-TheWorld. “Last year, MÄK implemented streaming terrain on the client side in both VR-Vantage and VR-Forces. Now, we are proud to offer a complementary solution for the server side,” said Len Granowetter, MÄK’s Vice President of the Product Division. “VR-TheWorld Server and VR-TheWorld Online are the latest examples of our commitment to Terrain Agility in MÄK products.”VR-TheWorld Server will be available in Q3 of 2010. VR-TheWorld Online is available now at no cost to VR-Vantage and VR-Forces customers and for trial use by others. For additional information and pricing, please contact us.
VR-Vantage XR, MÄK’s latest visualization tool is now available. This visual solution blends the best features of 2D tactical maps and 3D perspective views to provide a common operating picture. VR-Vantage XR is a part of the VR-Vantage line of visualization products. VR-Vantage XR provides the big picture view offered by 2D displays and includes the immersive perspective provided by a 3D visualization tool. Users can easily switch between the 2D and 3D views for enhanced understanding. VR-Vantage also allows models to be color coded and scaled to be visible at a distance for quick recognition of complex environments. Combined with picture in picture views, VR-Vantage XR can easily be used to provide a common operating picture for command & control (C2), a third person view for advanced demonstrations, an after action review (AAR) display for training, or a situational awareness (SA) view during simulation exercises. VR-Vantage XR is part of the VR-Vantage 1.2 product lin release. Continuing the company’s emphasis on Terrain Agility, all VR-Vantage products increase support for large area terrain databases with the new MetaFlight Loader. Another new feature is the VR-Vantage Remote Draw API which can be used to add objects to the scene or draw Heads Up Displays (HUDS) and overlays onto channels all from remote applications. Additionally we’ve enhanced support for Common Image Generator Interface (CIGI) to improve interoperability of VR-Vantage IG.
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MÄK Goes Green!
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68 Moulton Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 phone: 617.000.0101 email: us web: www.mak.com editor: Michelene St. Amand, Director Marketing Communications |
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Customers under active maintenance will be entitled to HLA Evolved updates at no additional cost. If you are interested in HLA Evolved, be sure to contact your account manager for more details and confirm your maintenance is up to date. For more information on our HLA Evolved plans, please contact 
MÄK Introduces VR-TheWorld. 
VR-Vantage XR is Here!
The VR-Vantage product line, which is built on OpenSceneGraph (OSG), includes VR-Vantage XR, an Exaggerated Reality Common Operating Picture; VR-Vantage Stealth, MÄK’s 3D information station; VR-Vantage IG, a desktop image generator for viewing out-the-window scenes; and the VR-Vantage Toolkit for extending VR-Vantage applications or even building new applications using the VR-Vantage platform. The VR-Vantage XR and the full line of VR-Vantage 1.2 products are now available. For additional information and pricing, please contact 
We’re proud to announce that we have launched an initiative at MÄK to become a greener company. A volunteer-based Green Team has been working to investigate ideas on how MÄK can reduce our carbon footprint and do our part to save the environment. We’ve already made some impactful changes ― MÄK printers are set-up to print double-sided, we’ve provided employees reusable coffee mugs, and we have a turn off the lights campaign. In addition, MÄK will no longer be distributing hard copies of our manuals. As always, customers will have access to all of our manuals in soft-copy. We hope you join us in thinking Green!
