Integrating the DIS Standards Into a Fully-Immersive Simulation Application

Fully-immersive applications in a distributed environment play an increasing role for training and simulation related areas. The Distributed Interactive Simulation protocols were created to ensure interoperability across participating sites. However, until recently the deployment of applications based on this set of standards was dependent on either licenses from commercial vendors or the projectinternal implementation of the specification. With the availability of open-source implementations a larger community has now access to reusable software infrastructure making these protocols available. We present an application framework for distributed, immersive simulations based on Distributed Interactive Simulation protocols. Our system provides components for input device processing, simulation of physical behavior, dead reckoning, and scenegraph rendering of user-defined scenarios. It includes a local datasynchronization mechanism, which enables the simulation to run on a cluster of graphics workstations. The application framework is highly customizable allowing the creation and execution of exercises that are suitable for diverse research objectives.