US military commission $57m virtual reality training sim powered by CryEngine 3

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The Dismounted Soldier Training System is a new military sim commissioned by the US government. The sim will be used to train new soldiers as early as next year, and cost a hefty $57 million to make. GamePro report that it's likely that most of this went on development of the the new technology that will capture soldiers' movements on a ten foot square pad. New recruits will experience the simulator through a virtual reality headset that will run from a state-of-the-art custom laptop strapped to their back.

The director of strategic programs at Intelligent Decisions, Floyd West tells GamePro that "a soldier could practice a scenario alone or with squad members, just as they would play an online video game. Soldiers and instructors could also play roles within the simulation. For example, they might play civilians that interact with someone from that squad, or they could play an opposing force, an enemy combatant. They could also control a group of semi-automated forces in the world."

"With CryEngine 3 being used for Crysis 2 and the capabilities that game engine provides, it allows us to make the most realistic simulation possible. We're able to transport soldiers to accurately recreated locales like Afghanistan and Iraq, where we can simulate everything from visuals to 360-degree sound."

The virtual reality headsets the trainees wear will run from a backpack unit similar to a top of the range gaming laptop, called the 'Man Wearable Unit'. "While the man wearable units aren't running on an off-the-shelf Alienware, the internal components themselves are commercial off-the-shelf CPU's and GPU's like NVIDIA graphic cards and whatnot," says West.

Given the ten foot square area needed to run the game, it's unlikely we'll see a commercial release of the Dismounted Soldier Training System. For now we'll have to make do with America's Army , another training and recruitment game developed by the US army. For more information on the DSTS, check out the info from Intelligent Designs . We really want to try it.

Tom Senior
Tom Senior

Part of the UK team, Tom was with PC Gamer at the very beginning of the website's launch—first as a news writer, and then as online editor until his departure in 2020. His specialties are strategy games, action RPGs, hack ‘n slash games, digital card games… basically anything that he can fit on a hard drive. His final boss form is Deckard Cain.