1. New Weapons – This release added support for sonobouys (passive/active), mines (placement and clearing), ASROC, a completely overhauled torpedo model (supporting different search programs), and naval guns. We even added a depth charge model – the detonations look really nice with our new 3D ocean!

2. New Sensors – We have completely overhauled our sonar model, which includes support for dipping sonar. Our radar model has been improved to consider the state of snorkels and periscopes when detecting partially surfaced submarines. Surface and subsurface vessels now publish information about plant noise and our new passive sonar model now uses that to determine what it can detect.

3. New Entity Motion Models – We have a completely new submarine and surface ship model. The models are configured to follow routes accurately, turn and list the ship correctly, and behave correctly when played at faster than real-time speeds.

4. Better Navigation – Ships can now use coastal boundaries and depth data from S-57 to navigate in littoral areas.

1. Reactive Tasks – Users can now write Reactive Tasks in Lua. Reactive Tasks are just like scripted tasks, except they “kick in” when certain conditions are met by the model. For example, a collision avoidance reactive task can be assigned to all ships, but then will only take over ship movement when the ship is on a collision course with another vehicle. Once the collision is avoided, the ship will return to its previous course.

2. Animated Tasks – These tasks can be created using positional data generated outside of VR-Forces – for example, recorded telemetry data or the result of a simulation in MATLAB. Any entity can then receive a task where the precise movement of the model is carefully scripted, like a complicated missile avoidance maneuver for an aircraft. When set as a reactive task, the aircraft will fly the pre-scripted maneuver once it detects a threat.

1. Easier to upgrade/configure models – We have made it much easier to build and maintain a large model set. We have modified the format so that only extremely limited changes will be required moving forward. To make the transition easy, VR-Forces comes with automated tools to convert older models into the new streamlined format. This change will allow customers to maintain larger sets of model configuration with almost no work required to upgrade VR-Forces.

2. More Models – We have added hundreds of new, out-of-the-box model configurations to VR-Forces. Models are now classified by the countries where they are used (according to Jane’s). We have added a complete set of models used by the United Kingdom, Canada, and Israel, as well as hundreds of other models from other countries around the world.

A marine capability (included in the base product) – You can now add a dynamic ocean to your scene. The ocean has a fully configurable sea state, ship buoyancy model, shoreline effects, underwater views, surface impacts and detonations, and local wind effects like helicopter rotor wash. Ships have configurable wakes that dynamically affect the ocean surface. The sea state is modeled using the JONSWAP spectrum, which includes waves and swell. You can even set the ocean level to control tide.

Advanced lighting visualization – Besides expanding support for light points to account for directional and flashing lights used for navigation, we have added support for shader-based dynamic light sources that can cast light on the terrain and other geometry. You can now add search lights, head lights, and street lights to your scene. If just casting more light in the scene isn’t enough, we have built a new shader infrastructure that allows all our models and terrain to support Normal (Bump) Maps, Reflection Maps, Specular Maps, and AO Maps. We have upgraded many of our internal models to have pre-configured maps so you can take advantage of the new lighting out-of-the-box.

Advanced environmental visualization – VR-Vantage 1.6 updates environmental conditions; it’s now much easier to add clouds, fog, and rain to your scene. All these environmental conditions are closely integrated into the scene. For example, if you turn on rain, your visibility will automatically decrease. If you turn up the wind, the clouds will correctly move. Of course, as always, if you require fine grain control over these features, you can manipulate each independently.

Screen Effects – Now that we have a beautiful environment model, we have added the ability to show the effects of the environment on the screen. You can now show rain hitting your screen. If you dive under water you will see splash hit the screen. If you look into the sun, lens flare will appear.

Better content – VR-Vantage can now visualize DI-Guy’s skinned characters. We have upgraded our Speed Tree support to allow for Speed Trees on geocentric terrain. If you want lots of trees, you can now populate dense forests from areal feature data