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Bohemia Interactive Simulations

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Bohemia Interactive Simulations
Company typePrivate
IndustryComputer and video games
Interactive entertainment
Founded2001
HeadquartersOrlando, Florida
Key people
Arthur Alexion Co-CEO, Peter Morrison (Co-CEO), Dr.Mark Dzulko (CTO), Colin Hillier (COO) [1]
ProductsVBS1, VBS2, VBS3, Silvador Pro, VBSDN, Multi-Channel View Client
OwnerThe Riverside Company
Websitehttp://www.bisimulations.com/

History

Bohemia Interactive Simulations, a global simulation software company, began as spinoff studio Bohemia Interactive Australia (BIA), formed by Bohemia Interactive Studio and David Lagettie, where joint development of a special military training simulation program VBS1 or Virtual Battlespace 1 began in December 2001. The Virtual Battlespace software series is widely used as a desktop simulation software for training among western military organizations[2]. The company's customers include the United States Army, the United States Marine Corps, the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence, NATO, the Australian Defence Force, the Canadian Armed Forces, and the Swedish Armed Forces. Today, the company has offices in the United States, the United Kingdom, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Australia.

VBS1

After thorough testing and field use (in cooperation with United States Marine Corps), VBS1 was made available in the fall of 2002 for qualified government clients and military organizations. On May 21, 2004, VBS1 underwent limited public distribution. On August 14, 2004 it was released for North America; distribution was handled by Coalescent Technologies. According to the company, funding through Australian Defence Simulation Office helped add a number of improvements to VBS1 including making it HLA/DIS compliant and improving the after-action review feature in its next iteration, VBS2 [3].

VBS2

Development on VBS2 began after the Australia Defence Force purchased an enterprise license of VBS1 in 2005 [4]. During the development of VBS2,the company worked with Calytrix Technologies to develop the VBS2 HLA/DIS gateway[5]. The company also established a team of developers in the Czech Republic to "support real-world terrain import" and create tools for developers [6]

In 2008, most of development operations were moved to Prague, Czech Republic under newly formed Bohemia Interactive Simulations. Subsequently, BIA was integrated as Asia-Pacific arm of Bohemia Interactive Simulations and Pete Morrison, previously Lead Developer, was appointed CEO.

Riverside Acquisition

In January 2013, The Riverside Company, a New York-based private equity firm, acquired Bohemia Interactive Simulations for an undisclosed amount[7]. The Orlando Sentinel reported that The Riverside Company expected to see "across-the-board growth" in the Bohemia Interactive Simulations[8].

TerraSim Acquisition

In April 2013, Bohemia Interactive Simulations acquired Pittsburgh, PA-based TerraSim Inc., described as a "technology leader in commercial products enabling the rapid production of correlated terrain for visual, constructive, and serious game simulation systems"[9]. In an interview with Defense News, Co-CEO Pete Morrison said that Bohemia Interactive Simulations' reason for purchasing for the company was to better integrate TerraSim's TerraTools suite of terrain generation tools into VBS [10]. TerraSim's products also are widely used by military simulations for terrain development, including the U.S. Army, U.S. Air Force, and Lockheed Martin[11].

VBS3

In June 2013, the U.S. Army announced that it had awarded its 5-year Games for Training contract as part of a joint effort led by Calytrix Technologies and assisted by partner companies SimCentric Technologies, and Alelo. The company unveiled an early version of VBS3 at the annual exhibition I/ITSEC in December 2013. The company listed a range of new advancements including the game engine's ability to support larger models, massive terrains, and higher fidelity graphics [12]. The company also announced a number of performance improvements, including procedural generation of terrain at run-time[13].

Bohemia Interactive Simulations released VBS3 v3.0 to the U.S. Army in March 2014. Within a few weeks, thousands of soldiers had downloaded VBS3 from the Army's MilGaming portal [14]. The company also announced performance improvements for fast-air simulation, including real-time object aggregation and sub-pixel rendering[15]. In May 2014, Army Times reported on a special plug-in developed in VBS3 for the U.S. Army that allows soldiers to assign physical training scores and weapons qualifications to their avatars in the simulation [16].

Bohemia Interactive Simulations announced the release of VBS3, version 3.4, to commercial customers in July 2014[17].

Benefits of Game-based Simulation

U.S. Army Games for Training chief Marco Conners said in an Army Times article that "enables the leader to look at their squad or platoon and see where he can improve their performance capabilities” [18]. Others have touted the ability game-based training to reduce time and risks in training exercises [19][20].

Developed training programs

  • VBS1 (Windows) - November 2006 - 2002, 2004 (worldwide)
  • VBS2 (Windows) - April 2007 (worldwide)
  • VBS3 (Windows) - May 2014,[21]

References

  1. ^ http://products.bisimulations.com/our-company?qt-company=2#qt-company
  2. ^ http://bisimulations.com/content/mon-01072013-1045/riverside-company-investment
  3. ^ http://distribution.bisimulations.com/docs/VBS2_Whitepaper.pdf
  4. ^ http://distribution.bisimulations.com/docs/VBS2_Whitepaper.pdf
  5. ^ http://distribution.bisimulations.com/docs/VBS2_Whitepaper.pdf
  6. ^ http://distribution.bisimulations.com/docs/VBS2_Whitepaper.pdf
  7. ^ http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2013-01-09/business/os-simulation-company-acquisition-20130109_1_training-simulation-industry-private-equity-firm-budget-cuts
  8. ^ http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2013-01-09/business/os-simulation-company-acquisition-20130109_1_training-simulation-industry-private-equity-firm-budget-cuts
  9. ^ http://bisimulations.com/content/wed-04172013-1450/bohemia-acquires-terrasim
  10. ^ http://www.defensenews.com/article/20130419/TSJ01/304190012/Bohemia-Interactive-Acquires-TerraSim
  11. ^ http://www.defensenews.com/article/20130419/TSJ01/304190012/Bohemia-Interactive-Acquires-TerraSim
  12. ^ http://bisimulations.com/content/tue-12032013-0837/vbs3-iitsec-first-look
  13. ^ http://bisimulations.com/content/tue-12032013-0837/vbs3-iitsec-first-look
  14. ^ http://us1.campaign-archive2.com/?u=a26fbe53f68fee4dde9f902b7&id=33a953bf76#2
  15. ^ http://us1.campaign-archive1.com/?u=a26fbe53f68fee4dde9f902b7&id=132101403e#2
  16. ^ http://www.armytimes.com/article/20140517/NEWS/305170032/You-re-game
  17. ^ http://bisimulations.com/content/thu-07032014-2311/bohemia-interactive-simulations-releases-vbs3-v34
  18. ^ http://bisimulations.com/content/thu-07032014-2311/bohemia-interactive-simulations-releases-vbs3-v34
  19. ^ http://bisimulations.com/content/thu-07032014-2311/bohemia-interactive-simulations-releases-vbs3-v34
  20. ^ http://www.army.mil/article/123316/Latest__Virtual_Battle_Space__release_adds_realism_to_scenarios__avatars/
  21. ^ http://bisimulations.com/content/thu-07032014-2311/bohemia-interactive-simulations-releases-vbs3-v34
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