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Did you hear? VR-TheWorld Supports Tactical Maps!
We'll focus on two important additions to VR-TheWorld:
1. An embedded tile server, OpenStreetMap data in OpenMapTiles format, and sample MapBox GL styles that you can use in Raster layers.
2. Global data additions to support the VR-Forces Aggregate-Level simulation scenarios.
MAK Delivers Hands-on VR-Forces Training to Kemalak for Virtual Sand Table Development
In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, MAK Technologies’ Simulation Product Trainer, Melinda Minear, recently led a tailored MAK ONE workshop focused on VR-Forces for Kemalak Group SDN BHD. Kemalak is a systems integrator dedicated to helping their customers make informed decisions through the right tools, knowledge, and solutions.
RFView® for MAK ONE is here, bringing next-generation SAR imaging into MAK ONE synthetic environments.
Jointly developed with Information Systems Laboratories (ISL), RFView® for MAK ONE combines ISL’s decades of expertise in radar simulation with MAK’s multi-domain, terrain-agile synthetic environments—delivering fully correlated SAR imagery that integrates seamlessly with EO/IR sensor and out-the-window views.
What's up MAK Newsletter: The Wargaming Issue
Wargaming is having a bit of a glow up. We've come a long way from paper maps and manual adjudication, and we're seeing increased appetite for exercises to stretch across domains and run on shared synthetic environments.
This issue of What’s Up MAK gets into what that "glow up" looks like across the MAK ONE ecosystem. Keep reading to learn how MAK ONE is the Common Synthetic Environment built for modern wargaming.
MAKer Spotlight: Johnny Powers
Heeeere’s Johnny!
We’re excited to unveil this quarter’s MAKer Spotlight, Johnny Powers, MAK’s Director of Business Development with a special focus on wargaming and computer-aided exercises.
From leading soldiers in the field to building relationships and strategic partnerships today at MAK, Johnny brings his lifetime of operational experience and a genuine belief in the value of making the right decisions before lives are on the line.
His path to wargaming and simulation technology started early. “As long as I can ever remember, even as a kid...I always wanted to be a soldier,” he shared. And so he did. He served 29 years in the US Army where he rose to the rank of Colonel, working closely with brigade and division leaders to design complex training environments.
Scaling Force Development with VR-Forces, Orchestrate, and Hive
In this guest article, Tom Skelding, Forge Product Manager from Cervus, draws on recent experimentation work to show how teams are complementing traditional wargaming with repeatable, data-driven approaches using Forge, VR-Forces, and Hive.
Wargaming has long played a central role in force development. It gives military staffs a structured way to explore how forces and tactics might perform in different scenarios. But many approaches still rely heavily on expert judgement and manual adjudication, which makes experiments harder to scale, repeat and compare. Today, the pressures on defence experimentation are changing. Teams are being asked to test more variables, answer more complex questions, and produce evidence faster. Decision-makers need more than a compelling discussion; they need results they can use with confidence.
This is where the combination of MAK’s VR-Forces, Cervus’ Forge Orchestrate, and Hive changes the equation.
How to Configure MAK ONE’s VR-Engage Virtual Simulator with Accurate Vehicle Dynamics based on an Existing Model
By Len Granowetter
MAK’s VR-Engage virtual simulator application, part of the MAK ONE suite, includes a built-in vehicle dynamics simulation, using Vortex, by CM Labs. Vortex is a mature and powerful COTS physics and dynamics engine that provides a simple authoring UI, allowing users to model at whatever fidelity is desired – including modeling of multi-axle drive and steering systems, dynamic loads, wheeled and tracked systems, physics of turrets and other parts, etc. However, the MAK ONE platform is also capable of using pre-existing dynamics models and external code that is not based on the Vortex physics engine. Here's how to configure VR-Engage with accurate vehicle dynamics based on an existing model.
VR-Engage 2.0.3 has arrived! Here is what's new.
By Len Granowetter
We just announced our mid-2023 set of maintenance releases for the MAK ONE applications – VR-Forces, VR-Vantage, and VR-Engage. For the most part, maintenance releases are about bug fixes, optimizations, and other minor configuration changes that make our customers’ experience better. But sometimes, maintenance releases also include some targeted new capabilities that are additive or low-impact - that’s the case with the VR-Engage 2.0.3 release.
An experiment with ChatGPT-Powered Customer Support
By Jim Kogler (**edited by ChatGPT, Morgan, and Dan)
I have been approached by multiple customers suggesting the idea of developing a support system by training an OpenAI/Chat-GPT system on our MAK documentation set. They believed it could potentially provide some level of autonomous help desk for our customers. Intrigued by the possibility of automating support, I decided to give it a try. However, I must say it hasn't gone well, and as a result, we won't be releasing it just yet.
Learn how AI can sometimes be misleading...
MAK FIRES: Individual training in the context of a multi-domain operation
For more than 30 years, MAK has been providing commercial software products used by customers, just like you, to create simulated environments for concept development, research, design, and training. Recently, MAK expanded our staff to include experts in the design, development, and implementation of training solutions to train individual skills in a collective training environment. MAK's mission has always been to be a partner, not just a vendor. Our Training Solution Division expands the solutions we can offer to minimize your risk and program cost, and help you achieve program success.
Our first Training Solution offering is MAK FIRES, a comprehensive and immersive training system that provides realistic training for Call for Fire (CFF) missions. MAK's own Bill Kamer, a retired Bradley Master Gunner, was the inspiration behind MAK Fires. Immediately upon joining the MAK team, Bill saw the potential of using the MAK ONE environment to create an easy-to-use and realistic CFF trainer that can be used by an individual trainer at their home station or as part of a formal CFF classroom environment.
