HLA 1.3 and HLA IEEE 1516-2000 (DCL API) Support Ending for MAK ONE Applications
by Jim Kogler
Starting with the MAK ONE 2023 release cycle, MAK ONE applications will no longer support HLA 1.3 or IEEE-1516.2000 (DLC API). These changes will NOT impact MAK ONE Infrastructure products including the MAK RTI, VR-Link, VR-Exchange, the MAK Data Logger, or the MAK WebLVC Server. Libraries for HLA 1.3 and 1516-2000 will continue to be available.
HLA 1.3 is an old HLA standard that has been used since the late 1990s. HLA-1516.2000 (DLC API) was the first IEEE version of HLA. The IEEE-1516.2000 standard was ratified in 2000 and was problematic from the beginning, failing to provide a workable dynamic link compatible C++ API. Both HLA 1.3 and HLA-IEEE-1516.2000 (DLC API) have been largely replaced with more recent versions of the HLA IEEE 1516-2010 standard known as HLA Evolved.
Starting in the next set of MAK ONE feature releases, the HLA-1516.2000 (DLC API) connections and supporting code will be completely removed from VR-Forces, VR-Engage, and VR-Vantage. We aren’t aware of any customers who use this version of HLA and believe there will be minimal customer impact.
Additionally, HLA 1.3 connection configurations will not be available out of the box. MAK will discontinue testing in an HLA 1.3 environment. The code needed to support an HLA 1.3 environment will NOT be removed from VR-Forces, VR-Vantage, and VR-Engage, enabling MAK to support the HLA 1.3 environment as part of special support contracts.
While MAK strives to support a wide range of interoperability standards, continued support of the legacy HLA protocols as part of our standard support would increase the cost burden on our customers. For customers with existing systems using the deprecated protocols, gateway products such as VR-Exchange can help connect modern MAK ONE Applications to those legacy networks. Customers with concerns or questions should feel free to reach out for more information at
