BISim™ releases powerful upgrades to VBS4

Delivering affordability through VBS Builder Edition 
VBS Builder Edition makes it easier for developer partners, from small businesses to large systems integrators, to rapidly build simulation solutions on VBS and deploy them for immediate use. At $300 per seat per year, VBS Builder Edition reduces cost and technical barriers, enabling developers to delight their customers rapidly and iteratively.

Enhanced AI capabilities 
The 24.1 release sees a significant milestone for BISim’ AI development, with BISim’s Control AI becoming the default and only AI system available in this release of VBS4. Customers can expect to see improvements to every aspect of AI behaviors in all domains, including more complex and reliable behaviors, while reducing administrator workloads. All entities have brand new waypoint types and associated behaviors. When loading an existing battlespace created in previous versions of VBS4, the old AI waypoints will be automatically converted to the new system.  See the technology brief from ITEC 2024 for more information about these improvements. 

Improvised drone munitions  
Munitions can be dropped from the drone or configured to detonate on impact when the drone hits an object. This new capability can be combined with a new First-Person View (FPV) drone with a new flight model to accurately represent the use of weaponized drones deployed in current conflicts.  

Built-in benchmark tool 
The benchmarking tool runs a set of automated stress tests to every component of your computer, while also capturing data about your specific hardware configuration. The tool then produces both a simple text file summarizing the results along with indicating potential issues, and detailed results which can be used for further analysis. Customers can use this tool to test the suitability of their hardware or to capture detailed information about hardware configuration for analysis by BISim’s support team.

Geo terrain editing 
In Geo, VBS4’s built-in terrain editing tool, customers can now create bridges with customizable length, width, and shape, and select from several procedural styles to create AI navigable crossings. Buildings can also be procedurally created and modified from simple outlines drawn directly on the terrain.

Global airfields 
The download adds 8,951 procedurally created airfields using real world data. Each airfield includes taxiways, tarmac, and heliports with the correct line markings, as well as common Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) approach lighting systems such as runway, taxiway, tarmac, and PAPI lights.

Configuration Patch Builder (CPB) export 
Added last year, the CPB allows customers to explore and modify any configuration parameters of any model within VBS4's huge content database to create custom variations of the default content shipped. In this release, users can now export all the configuration parameters from VBS4 in a single batch export into a CSV format where they can be modified externally. Once modified, the configurations can then be re-imported into CPB to create a custom VBS4 configuration.

Missile and Rocket trails
New particle effects were added, which accurately represent the smoke emitted from a rocket/missile. This allows for trainees to more accurately pick up the visual signature of a launch and track the direction of travel of the munition.

Simulation of BONUS rounds
This release adds a simulation of BONUS, an artillery-launched, fire-and-forget munition in which the carrier shell separates to deploy two sensor-fuzed munitions that then search for targets within a given footprint. The BONUS round can be accessed via the Fire Direction Centre (FDC), along with other conventional munitions.     

Performance enhancements to VBS Blue IG
This release offers more than 30 new performance improvements in the core IG engine, including enhanced rendering and visual parity between VBS4 and VBS Blue IG. These improvements enable seamless integration in simulators that use VBS4 as a simulation host and VBS Blue IG as an image generator.