US military creates second Earth

dod

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3507531.stm

America has no ambitions toward building an Empire?

US military creates second Earth
The US Army is building a second version of Earth on computer to help it prepare for conflicts around the world.

The detailed simulation will be drawn from a real-world terrain database and will be drawn to the same scale as the original.

The software Earth is being created for the US Army by gaming company There, which is currently working on a virtual world for gamers.

The first version of the virtual planet should be finished by September.

Big picture

The ambitious project aims to help the US Army plan future conflicts which are unlikely to involve set-piece battles and instead be smaller in scale.

Details of the project were revealed by Robert Gehorsam, a senior vice president at There, during a lengthy interview posted on the Homelan Fed gaming website.

Mr Gehorsam said the world being created will not be a game but instead will be a "massively multi-user persistent environment" that will model real world physics as closely as possible.

The emphasis in the artificial Earth will be on human interaction rather than conflicts involving lots of military hardware.

He said combat will be a part of the game but it is also intended to let the Army simulate intelligence work as well as patrols, planning and working with indigenous populations.

Also included will be lots of tools that help trainers and pupils work out how they did and review their progress during and after a simulation exercise.

There is planning to model the entire planet at the proper scale so it would be possible to walk across the United States if participants wanted to.

However, currently the virtual Earth is almost bare as the only thing modelled in any detail is part of Kuwait City.

He said There was working with the US Army researchers to ensure that existing models of the way that things such as crowds and vehicles react can be included in the simulated planet.

In spring a group of sergeants and junior officers that have served in Iraq will become the first soldiers to try out the virtual Earth.

vorbis

America projects force all around the globe. They obviously would want greater training in foreign terrain conditions. I wonder how detailed this model will get. I can imagine There will sell it off to companies like ID to make FPS games out of it.

Raskolnikov

Originally posted by dod
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3507531.stm

America has no ambitions toward building an Empire?

Sounds expensive and ridiculous to me, the computation of such an application would surely border on intractable.

Sand

America has no ambitions toward building an Empire?

Map 2.0

Karoma

given what the yanks know of the rest of the world (example: ireland: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=141101 ) ... i doubt it's realism/usefulness.

UnrealQueen

Aww, i thought by the subject it was true kinda like Star Trek III with the Genesis planet thingy.:)

PrecariousNuts

GDI are going to win hands down. Take that Brotherhood of NOD!

Exit

Originally posted by Karoma
given what the yanks know of the rest of the world (example: ireland: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=141101 ) ... i doubt it's realism/usefulness.

I don't think it's a bunch of tourists who'll be creating the game.

I think maybe the US government knows a little about the world.

nadir

on the subject http://newamericancentury.org/ is an interesting site

dod

Originally posted by nadir
http://newamericancentury.org/

That is a truly terrifying site, if only because the contributors seem to believe their own theories.

vgar

At least its not Microsoft doing it! :-) lol

Karoma

Originally posted by Exit
I don't think it's a bunch of tourists who'll be creating the game.

I think maybe the US government knows a little about the world.

you'd like to think that:) that was only one example. As for The Handbook: that's outdated or inaccurate, or at least, the online version is..

hedgetrimmer

Wonder will it be released on PC this year? Get some gamer to win the game, and be promoted to next President of USA>