How Simulation Games Prepare the Military for More Than Just Combat

Before signing up for active duty, today's generation of armed forces recruits have usually played hours of branded RPGs such as Call of Duty. But while engaging in simulated battescapes improves motor skills and familiarity with military jargon, it can't prepare them for what's ahead. Or can it?

Peter Morrison, a veteran of the Australian Army and Chief Commercial Officer of Bohemia Interactive Simulations (BISim), says virtual exposure is vital to the success of tomorrow's warfighters in the field. His company, which recently scored a $5 million contract from the US Marines, takes it to the next level. We spoke with Morrison from his HQ in Orlando, Florida. Here are edited and condensed excerpts from our conversation.

Peter, have you always been into RPG and SIMs?
I have always loved computer games and I was a gamer well before I was an Army officer. I discovered Operation Flashpoint from Bohemia Interactive Studio back in 2001, while I was studying computer science at the Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA). I realized, as did many others at the time, that this particular computer game was especially suited to military training. It supported large, open environments and it included a mission editor that allowed a non-programmer to build very complex scenarios.

After graduation, I looked for positions in the Army that allowed me to work with simulations, and eventually I ended up at the Australian Defence Simulation Office (ADSO). I worked primarily as a Project Manager on many different simulations. It was very fulfilling for me to witness firsthand the adoption of game-based training in the Australian Defence Force (ADF) from 2003 to 2005.

Did BISim recruit you before you left active duty? What was your first role there and when did you become CEO?
I resigned from the Army in 2005 and approached BIS to advise them on the development of VBS2 and work on various components of the software. I didn't officially join the company until 2007, when I became CEO. In the meantime I had my own business, consulting for BIS and providing guidance on how to build the game based upon my knowledge of military training.

When did the company win its first US military contract and what was the product?
BIS had actually been contracted to deliver a military training game well before I joined, way back around 2003. The USMC funded the development of VBS1, which was a game-based desktop training tool used for squad-level training and call for fire. The next major contract was with the Australian Defence Force in 2005, when the VBS1 product was used to train soldiers deploying to Iraq. The USMC upgraded to the next version of VBS—VBS2—in 2006 on an enterprise-wide basis. Since then, VBS has been sold to more than 50 military organizations, including the US Army, where VBS3 is referred to as the US Army's "Game for Training."

Almost every veteran I've interviewed credits Call of Duty with helping them develop great motor skills before signing up. Explain how BISim does this on a whole other level.
A key point is that game-based training in the military focuses on cognitive learning—or "how to think" training. While certain games—like Call of Duty—might help with certain motor skills, they certainly don't improve the use of a real rifle, for example. Games are used in huge Battle Simulation Centers across the US Army (and many other military organizations), and soldiers sit at the computers and play collectively. But in the game, they are primarily practicing tactics, techniques, and procedures, and most importantly they are practicing making decisions. Yes, they move through and conduct the mission virtually—including shooting simulated rifles in the computer game—but the real point is to practice decision-making skills that will lead to better decisions in the real world.

Explain how you're able to recreate virtual Afghanistan, or elsewhere, to a level of fidelity unseen before?
What we do is combine the best of what the game industry offers—photo-realistic graphics and technologies like normal mapping and inverse kinematic animation—and apply this to meet military training needs, in the form of a game. So we have developed tens of thousands of high-fidelity 3D models over the years, and we (or the Army) can procedurally / automatically place this high-fidelity content based upon the best information available, [such as] the real-world location of roads, buildings, etc.

One of the most exciting things we're doing now is supporting the direct import of drone-collected 3D data into the game. This means that the military can fly a drone at a low level, and using photogrammetry, a highly realistic 3D model of a huge area can be constructed. Our users can quickly pull that data into the game and use it as the basis of training, which is really cutting-edge. We are actually working on this with the Institute for Creative Technologies (ICT), part of University of Southern California.

Which HMDs are used for engaging in your products—just military-grade, or have you integrated with commercial products such as Oculus too?
We have focused on commercial headsets but some of these are very high-end—for example the Varjo VR-1. The main issue with commercial VR has been relatively low resolution, making it difficult to read text or identify distant objects in the headset, but now we are seeing new headsets like the Vive Pro and the Varjo VR-1 providing resolutions that are close to acceptable. We are excited about the future and it's only a matter of time before we have 4K resolution in commercial VR devices.