Development Update – 2019 Review



Development Update – 2019 Review

December 23, 2019 10:05 am

The Infinite team have been very busy over the last many months, and the amount of work coming our way is not slowing down.

The team has been continually working on the core Infinite Engine features and doing awesome! A huge thank you to the whole team for their efforts this year; Brian Du, Chad Christie, Chris Targett, Jarred McEvoy, Nick McEvoy, Rachael Crozier, Raechel Martin and Sebastian Roschi.

A big thanks to Sebastian, who has stepped up as our Scrum Master and improved the team focus and cohesiveness.

New Features in our 3.7.0 Release

Improved Atmospheric Modelling

As mentioned in a previous Development Update, there have been some major improvements to Infinite Studio’s Atmospheric Modelling.

Increased azimuth/elevation samples, improved blending, smoother details especially at the horizon. Customisable quality levels from Preview to Production so easier to quickly check MODTRAN settings before producing final atmosphere object. Improved atmosphere generation time. Cached atmospheric data by altitude so that additional observer altitudes may be added later without having to regenerate entire atmosphere. MODTRAN atmosphere cache now editor only to improve level loading times and packaged file sizes.

The above images show the updated atmospherics in Infinite Studio.

Ship and Aircraft Plume Modelling

Generic unclassified ship and aircraft plumes with spectral materials based on real world emission curves gathered from research papers. Plume properties are customisable, such as outlet radius and thrust power, which affect its visual appearance. These values can be driven on the fly. Further details can be found in this Development Update.

Pyrotechnic Countermeasure Modelling

Airburst and surface detonated countermeasures have been created for ships. Generic visible and infrared spectral materials. Composed of multiple parts: smoke trails, ribbons and burning particles, each with customisable materials.

The left 2 screen captures show the plumes off the rear end of an aircraft in Visible (top left) and Infrared with a False Colour map overlayed (bottom left).
The top right image shows ship plumes and the bottom right image shows ship countermeasures, both in the Visible spectrum.

Air, Land & Maritime Platform Manoeuvres / Waypoints

Waypoint capability for ships, tank and ground infantry soldiers, including aircraft manoeuvres using AMIEL.

Waypoint system applied to an infantry soldier.
Waypoint system applied to a boat.
Waypoint system applied to a tank.

High Fidelity Real World Scenes

The development of real word scenes, with buildings, roads, railways, vegetation as imported from OpenStreetMap and terrain height data from Nextzen. New real world maps available with Infinite Studio are Archipelago and Afghan Landscapes.

A screen capture from within Infinite Studio of the Archipelago landscape.
A screen capture from within Infinite Studio of the Afghan landscape.

Additional High Fidelity Landscapes

In addition to the above scenes, the team has also created Scrubland, Desert and Tropical Urban Landscapes. These are not for general distribution, but demonstrate the capability of what Infinite Studio can produce.

A screen capture from within Infinite Studio of the Scrubland.
A screen capture from within Infinite Studio of the Desert landscape.
A screen capture from within Infinite Studio of the Tropical Urban Landscape.

Game Artist At Work

No words are needed here, pictures tell the whole story – wow!

A screen capture of the C-130J Hercules aircraft in Infinite Studio.
A screen capture of the MRH90 helicopter in Infinite Studio.
A screen capture of an Air-To-Air missile in Infinite Studio.
A screen capture of an F/A-18 Hornet with attached plumes, in Infinite Studio.
A JetBoat textured with an Infinite Studio inspired material.

Upcoming Work for 2020

Whats next in 3.8.0 …

  • Prototype cloud and rain modelling
  • Hardware in the loop integration
  • Indoor flight arena integration
  • Improved ocean and low fidelity wakes
  • New 3D model assets (military aircraft, missiles, ships, infrastructure)
  • Unreal Engine upgrade to 4.24

… there are Infinite Possibilities for the new year … cheers!




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