It is based on proven COTS (commercial-off-the-shelf) software components, combined with expert design and development services.

Key features

These are some of the ways that Mantle ETM scores over older methods of terrain virtualization:

• Cost-effectiveness.
• Ease-of-use.
• Effectiveness.
• Proven technology.
• Regular updates.
• Scalability.

Cost-effectiveness

Mantle ETM reduces the manpower required to develop and deploy terrain by offering a high degree of automation at every stage.

Ease-of-use

It is is designed with accessibility in mind. Users can quickly learn to create and edit terrain on the fly. With the VBS Geo-editing tool, it leverages a content library consisting of more than eight thousand 3D models. And edits can be stored and curated centrally.

Effectiveness

Mantle ETM simplifies enterprise-wide terrain handling for simulation and visualization by providing you with a cloud-capable terrain server that can be integrated with your existing terrain creation capabilities.

Terrain generated using Mantle ETM

This greatly improves the effectiveness of this software system.

Proven technology

The platform is based on robust COTS components, including:

• TerraTools components for generating artificial terrains.
• VBS4’s Blue Data Pipeline technology for procedural enhancement.
• VBS World Server components for terrain storage and other server functionality.

Updated regularly

Mantle ETM components are updated regularly with new customer-driven requirements and bug fixes. It benefits from significant internal investment. This drives feature improvements such as curated global base data and extended support for new runtimes and streaming terrain formats.

Scalability

Mantle ETM can be deployed on the cloud or on a local area network. It also supports synchronization between servers so that data can be distributed and backed up safely.

Terrain challenges and solutions

Creating a high-fidelity terrain simulation is difficult and challenging. It requires good source data, building correlated terrain for multiple runtimes, synchronizing data between different simulation clients, storing the vast amount of source data, utilizing classified and other restricted data, and editing data, all “on the fly”.

Historically, these challenges required separate specialist teams to build terrain data, disconnected from the point-of-need users. In order to obtain the required finished terrain, the old methods resulted in high costs and long lead times. Mantle ETM solves all these problems.

A Mantle ETM installation integrates with your existing terrain capabilities. It delivers a cloud-capable custom terrain pipeline that works with your data, processes, servers, and runtimes. It can also deliver a full end-to-end terrain creation and management system from scratch. And it can run from an internal server on a local area network too.

As BISim releases Mantle ETM, CEO Arthur Alexio explains

About BISim

Founded in 2001, Bohemia Interactive Simulations (BISim) is a global software company at the forefront of simulation and training software development for defense and civilian organizations. Its engineers use the latest game-based technology to develop high-fidelity, cost-effective training and simulation software products.

Thousands of military personnel around the world train using BISim’s VBS software products. More than 60 NATO and NATO-friendly countries, and over 300 system integrators and prime contractors deploy its VBS technology.

• More information about BISim and MantleETM.

The post BISim releases Mantle ETM—Enterprise Terrain Management appeared first on Architosh.

Lumen In the Land of Nanite

The reveal was introduced with “Lumen in the Land of Nanite,” a real-time demo running live on PlayStation 5, to showcase Unreal Engine technologies that will free creators to reach the highest level of real-time rendering detail in the next generation of games and beyond.

01 – A first look at Unreal Engine 5 focuses on photorealism on par with movie CG and real-life, putting it within practical reach of development teams of all sizes, through highly productive tools and content libraries. All rights reserved.

This demo previews two of the new core technologies that will debut in Unreal Engine 5:

Nanite virtualized micro polygon geometry frees artists to create as much geometric detail as the eye can see. Nanite virtualized geometry means that film-quality source art comprising hundreds of millions or billions of polygons can be imported directly into Unreal Engine—anything from ZBrush sculpts to photogrammetry scans to CAD data—and it just works. Nanite geometry is streamed and scaled in real-time so there are no more polygon count budgets, polygon memory budgets, or draw count budgets; there is no need to bake details to normal maps or manually author LODs, and there is no loss in quality.

Lumen is a fully dynamic global Illumination solution that immediately reacts to scene and light changes. The system renders diffuse interreflection with infinite bounces and indirect specular reflections in huge, detailed environments, at scales ranging from kilometers to millimeters. Artists and designers can create more dynamic scenes using Lumen, for example, changing the sun angle for time of day, turning on a flashlight, or blowing a hole in the ceiling, and indirect lighting will adapt accordingly. Lumen erases the need to wait for lightmap bakes to finish and to author lightmap UVs—a huge time savings when an artist can move a light inside the Unreal Editor and lighting looks the same as when the game is run on the console.

Numerous teams and technologies have come together to enable this leap in quality. To build large scenes with Nanite geometry technology, Epic’s team made heavy use of the Quixel Megascans library, which provides film-quality objects up to hundreds of millions of polygons. To support vastly larger and more detailed scenes than previous generations, PlayStation 5 provides a dramatic increase in storage bandwidth.

The demo also showcases existing engine systems such as Chaos physics and destruction, Niagara VFX, convolution reverb, and ambisonics rendering.

Unreal Engine 4 & 5 Timeline

Unreal Engine 4.25 already supports next-generation console platforms from Sony and Microsoft, and Epic is working closely with console manufacturers and dozens of game developers and publishers using Unreal Engine 4 to build next-gen games.

02 – Unreal Engine 5–Next-Gen Real-Time Demo Running on PlayStation 5. All rights reserved.

Unreal Engine 5 will be available in preview in early 2021, and in full release late in 2021, supporting next-generation consoles, current-generation consoles, PC, Mac, iOS, and Android. Epic is designing for forward compatibility, so developers can get started with next-gen development now in UE4 and move projects to UE5 when ready. Epic will release Fortnite, built with UE4, on next-gen consoles at launch and, in keeping with the team’s commitment to prove out industry-leading features through internal production, migrate the game to UE5 in mid-2021.

Unreal Engine royalties waived on first $1 million in-game revenue

Starting today, game developers can download and use Unreal Engine for free as always, except now royalties are waived on the first $1 million in gross revenue per title. The new Unreal Engine license terms, which are retroactive to January 1, 2020, give game developers an unprecedented advantage over other engine license models. For more information, visit the FAQ.

Epic Online Services have launched

Friends, matchmaking, lobbies, achievements, leaderboards, and accounts: Epic built these services for Fortnite, and launched them across seven major platforms – PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, PC, Mac, iOS, and Android. Now Epic Online Services are opened up to all developers for free in a simple multiplatform SDK.

Developers can mix and match these services together with their own account services, platform accounts, or Epic Games accounts, which reach the world’s largest social graph with over 350 million players and their 2.2 billion friend connections across half a billion devices.

For additional information, visit https://dev.epicgames.com/services.

About Epic

Founded in 1991, Epic Games is the creator of Fortnite, Battle Breakers, Unreal, Gears of War, Shadow Complex, and the Infinity Blade series of games. Epic’s Unreal Engine technology, the world’s most open and advanced real-time 3D tool, is freely available at unrealengine.com. The Epic Games Store offers a handpicked library of games, available at epicgames.com. Follow @EpicGames for updates.

The post Epic Games Unveils First Look at Unreal Engine 5 appeared first on Architosh.

Monthly release schedule

“I am pleased to announce ODA’s successful transition to a monthly release schedule for all products,” commented Neil Peterson, ODA President. “This change is necessitated by the fast pace of modern CAD and BIM development. A monthly release schedule lets us deliver more value, more quickly than ever before. It’s a change that’s been welcomed and applauded by our members.”

Sergey Vishnevetsky, ODA Development Director, said, “It’s a significant accomplishment to release a dozen major products, across five operating systems, on a monthly basis. It requires a disciplined and coordinated effort from our teams, and extensive automation integrated into every part of the development process.”

The new monthly release schedule replaces ODA’s long-standing biannual release policy.

About Open Design Alliance

ODA builds SDKs for people who work with complex engineering data. We offer platform-agnostic solutions for proprietary and open engineering formats, including data access, visualization, cloud development, publishing, and more.  Learn more at www.opendesign.com.

Architosh Analysis and Commentary (by Anthony Frausto-Robledo)

This is the second if not third sign we’ve heard of in as many weeks about the modern pace of software development being faster than in years past. This monthly release cycle will do a lot for developers who are all on different annual or biannual cycles (counting major service packs) allowing them to incorporate new features at a faster rate. 

For some software companies—and Maxon comes to mind—who are offering both perpetual licenses and subscription license plans, it means that a more frequent (say monthly or quarterly) release cycle for those on subscription (itself an incentive to move folks to subscription) can pack in important new core updates. Of these, having the very latest (.dwg) compatibility formats available will be important for some end users.

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