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Vortex Studio 2017c Software Platform Boosts Dynamic Calculation Speed by up to 40% with New “Partition Optimiser”

New release also features easier deployment, graphics improvements, and support for OpenVR

CM Labs Simulations Inc., a global provider of immersive real-time simulation solutions, announced today the availability of Vortex® Studio 2017c, the latest version of its unified simulation and visualisation platform for land and sea equipment training and virtual prototyping applications.

With Vortex Studio 2017c, users can create more detailed and life-like simulations, thanks to the faster dynamics calculations enabled by the new Partition Optimiser. Enabled by default in the Dynamics Module, the Partition Optimiser automatically shapes the data before it is fed into the solver, speeding dynamics calculations by up to 40%, with no loss of accuracy.

Vortex Studio 2017c also introduces multiple options for substepping dynamics calculations, for greater accuracy and easier connectivity with software that needs to run at faster iterations. This release also supports UDP, a communications protocol for low-latency & loss-tolerating connections between applications. This makes it easy for Vortex to communicate with 3rd party networked applications in distributed simulations.

“This release gives simulation developers more breathing room to balance speed with accuracy,” said Marc-Alexandre Vezina, Vortex Studio product manager, “and ultimately to spend less time optimising their simulations.”

Vortex Studio is now also easier to deploy, thanks to installer simplifications as well as additional tools in the Director panel of the Vortex Studio Player, aimed at making it faster and easier to configure and monitor simulations.

From the usability perspective, a number of improvements are now available, including easier-to-configure constraints, and a new hooking extension that eliminates the need to script hooks and attachment behaviours. This makes simulating crane and lifting operations with Vortex Studio even easier.

On the visualisation side, a new Cable Systems feature automatically instances 3D geometries along cable lengths, enabling quick visual modeling of items such as chains, belts or tracked vehicle tracks. In the Earthworks Systems Module, a new Screen Space Mesh (SSM) feature renders a soil material between particles to create a smooth look for soil, while keeping computations to a minimum. More advanced anti-aliasing methods have also been added to the application, including fast approximation anti-aliasing (FXAA), multi-sample anti-aliasing (MSAA), subpixel morphological anti-aliasing (SMAA), and a new method combining SMAA with MSAA.

With support for OpenVR, Vortex Studio now allows the use of certain virtual reality headsets as display devices. Supported devices include HTC Vive and Oculus Rift.

Experience Vortex Studio 2017c on booth 1620, at I/ITSEC 2017.

About CM Labs Simulations

CM Labs builds simulation-based solutions to help clients design advanced equipment and prepare for skilled operations. Through its Vortex Studio simulation and visualisation software, CM Labs provides capabilities for training simulators, mission rehearsal, serious games, virtual prototyping, and testing.

For nearly 20 years, CM Labs’ Vortex simulators have helped train equipment operators in construction, port, maritime, and offshore environments all over the world.

Vortex® is a registered trademark of CM Labs Simulations.

For more information, visit www.cm-labs.com or contact [email protected].