BGB wrote:
On 4/4/2012 9:29 AM, Miles Fidelman wrote:
- game-like simulations (which I'm more familiar with): but these are
serious games, with lots of people and vehicles running around
practicing techniques, or experimenting with new weapons and tactics,
and so forth; or pilots training in team techniques by flying
missions in a networked simulator (and saving jet fuel); or decision
makers practicing in simulated command posts -- simulators take the
form of both person-in-the-loop (e.g., flight sim. with a real pilot)
and CGF/SAF (an enemy brigade is simulated, with information inserted
into the simulation network so enemy forces show up on radar screens,
heads-up displays, and so forth)
For more on the latter, start at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distributed_Interactive_Simulation
http://www.sisostds.org/
so, sort of like: this stuff is to gaming what IBM mainframes are to
PCs?...
Not so sure. Probably similar levels of complexity between a military
sim. and, say, World of Warcraft. Fidelity to real-world behavior is
more important, and network latency matters for the extreme real-time
stuff (e.g., networked dogfights at Mach 2), but other than that, IP
networks, gaming class PCs at the endpoints, serious graphics
processors. Also more of a need for interoperability - as there are
lots of different simulations, plugged together into lots of different
exercises and training scenarios - vs. a MMORPG controlled by a single
company.
I had mostly heard about military people doing all of this stuff using
decommissioned vehicles and paintball and similar, but either way.
I guess game-like simulations are probably cheaper.
In terms of jet fuel, travel costs, and other logistics, absolutely.
But... when you figure in the huge dollars spent paying large systems
integrators to write software, I'm not sure how much cheaper it all
becomes. (The big systems integrators are not known for brilliance of
their coders, or efficiencies in their process -- not a lot of 20-hour
days, by 20-somethings betting on their stock options. A lot of good
people, but older, slower, more likely to put family first; plus a lot
of organizational overhead built into the prices.)
--
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice.
In practice, there is. .... Yogi Berra
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