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Introducing our Globe Platform!

Globe is a fully open-source, whole-earth, geo-specific modeling platform prototype built on the Unreal Engine 4 (UE4). The platform handles planet-sized levels of detail—users can zoom from orbit to the Earth’s surface in real-time. Virtual Heroes created Globe for the Army Research Laboratory’s Advanced Training and Simulation Division, to support the Army’s Synthetic Terrain Environment (STE). The platform is Government off the Shelf (GOTS), freely available for Government use. Check out our Globe demo video.

Virtual Heroes built the platform from the bottom up as a dynamically-tessellated quad-ellipsoid globe. All terrain elevation and imagery data are streamed in from the cloud or from a local cache and then dynamically calculated at runtime, based on the WGS84 coordinate system.

The version shown is streamed in and cached from public databases for elevation and imagery at fairly low resolution, with additional building OBJ/FBX models importing along with clutter (sign, lights, power, etc.), tree databases, and GPS-based data streams. Globe effectively supports infinite level of detail (LOD) of all data elements, dependent on your choice of data sources. Real-time terrain deformation is supported natively as all terrain is being generated in real-time from datastreams that may be dynamically updating from the cloud or cache, providing you a fully open-source open world with no limitations. Adding procedurally-generated terrain, third-party entity control libraries, patterns of life, tree/forest generation, weather effects, time of day, or any other simulation/training/visualization approaches are all quickly possible working from this full-source platform.

Globe features at a glance:

  • Fully open source Unreal Engine 4, with all UE4 capabilities
  • Flexible simulation and training platform
  • Entity tracking via GPS data
  • Real-time streaming of terrain imagery, elevation, 3D models, roadway data
  • Data streamed from the cloud
  • Cloud data saved to local cache
  • Access to all Unreal Engine enhancements
  • Full WGS84 geo-specific globe rendering
  • Government Off the Shelf (GOTS)