14

Are there any open-source military/war strategy simulating engines or frameworks? Combat rules engines or weapon selection guides? I'm looking for something similar to a military strategy "unit testing" in a simulated field.

What I'm trying to build is a combat advisor for troops deployed in the field. Intel' comes in with enemy's moves - software should advice about an optimal strategy - like in chess, only with two armies. The framework should be scalable - in an urban guerrilla warfare context it should advice upon tactical moves to make in order to counteract the enemy's assessed field tactics. That's why I'm wondering about any open source initiatives, so I could learn something from collective knowledge and gain insight upon such a project.

skaffman
  • 398,947
  • 96
  • 818
  • 769
luvieere
  • 37,065
  • 18
  • 127
  • 179
  • I don't know of any, but now I'm quite curious. Is this for some sort of AI? – C. Ross Nov 20 '09 at 15:15
  • Yes, I am aware of army initiatives and so called "war-games", but there are usually classified, I'm wondering if there are any "open-army" initiatives, like an open-source battle resource, with open equivalents to weapons-system and satellite coordination software. – luvieere Nov 20 '09 at 15:18
  • 10
    Take note than *real military stuff* and *open source* don't really go well together, unless it's pretty much obsolescent technology everyone everywhere already has. Open sourced engines from old video games instead could fit the role. – ZJR Nov 20 '09 at 15:20
  • 1
    What's the purpose? Are you writing a game? I'd think the number of people who have use for the real thing is kinda limited. Bear in mind that simulations where actual weapons matter are of limited accuracy, as people matter more than stuff, and the limitations of people are more important than limitations of stuff. – David Thornley Nov 25 '09 at 17:38
  • What I'm trying to build is a combat advisor for troops deployed in the field. Intel' comes in with enemy's moves - software should advice about an optimal strategy - like in chess, only with two armies. The framework should be scalable - in an urban guerrilla warfare context it should advice upon tactical moves to make in order to counteract the enemy's assessed field tactics. That's why I'm wondering about any open source initiatives, so I could learn something from collective knowledge and gain insight upon such a project. – luvieere Nov 25 '09 at 18:32
  • 4
    Professor Falken, the only winning move is not to play. – skaffman Nov 29 '09 at 13:46

10 Answers10

11

Check out the Battlefield Simulator at CodeProject.

9

If you looking for military simulations then: sorry but this get complicated.

Delta3D Open Source 3D gaming & simulation engine used for military training simulations. It does include some vehicles and other 3D assets but not a huge amount, you can import 3dsmax8 .Max files.
You can add SimCore to get HLA support plus munitions modeling and apparently even weather system. Plus you need a RTI e.g. CERTI

The common military Transmission and Interchange Formats are HLA and DIS (and CIGI)
Open-DIS this is the Open source version of DIS, its mostly developed by US Navy and Airforce officers. They are currently considering using Project DarkStar for the distributed framework.

An example game where DIS is use is ACM which while its rather old it does include DIS support. and the Unix version can be downloaded from here

There are a number of DIS C++ libraries available e.g. KDIS

AFAIK DIS is still around but is largely superseded by HLA-RTI
You can find a list of OS and commercial RTIs on Wikipedia here

The US has an "Open Source" simulator called OneSAF but it's open source only to government and military developers only. :( You can however download some docs from the website. Old Screenshot from around 2004.

10ToedSloth
  • 696
  • 5
  • 10
  • HLA is specifically defined as a standard for linking complete simulations together, not as means of organizing data exchange within single simulation. And it does in fact lack many features required for the latter. DIS... was vintage even when it was published in 90s. Military drags far behind in this area - if their standards are not required for certification, it's far better to use industry standards like OPC (OPC UA) and its derivatives. – ima Nov 28 '09 at 19:56
  • @ima, yep but I don't really know what, Luvieer's intention is so I'm just pointing out what was and is still used for military sims. If He's looking to make it work with military simulations then HLA is necessary. For example MILES Systems use HLA or DIS so they work with other other military sims. e.g. http://www.inter-coastal.net/smotar.html DIS isn't dead just tried and tested. – 10ToedSloth Nov 29 '09 at 07:47
3

Speaking of complete OS strategy games, you may want to look at Battle for Wesnoth. I'don't know if this suits your needs, or you are looking for a more documented and developer-friendly framework only.

AndreaG
  • 1,106
  • 2
  • 12
  • 28
3

If you're looking for a multiplayer framework
Project DarkStar examples and if you're thinking about developing something commercial, here's the license information

Otherwise could you explain what level of simulation you're looking for. e.g. Turn based strategy, real-time strategy, or something HLA (High Level Architecture) compliant?

This isn't Open source but if you're looking for inspiration check this out VR-Forces alt text
(source: mak.com)

Glorfindel
  • 21,988
  • 13
  • 81
  • 109
10ToedSloth
  • 696
  • 5
  • 10
2

Not really frameworks but real games (maybe their engine will be useful though, at least the first one)...

First one is Warzone 2100, a real-time strategy and real-time tactics game (under GPL). More details on its Wikipedia page.

Second one is Americas Army: Special Forces, a FPS game developed by the U.S. Army based on the Unreal Engine. It has a Wikipedia page too.

In the America's Army game, players are bound by Rules of Engagement (ROE) and grow in experience as they navigate challenges in teamwork-based, multiplayer, force versus force operations. In the game, as in the Army, accomplishing missions requires a team effort and adherence to the seven Army Core Values. Through its emphasis on team play, the game demonstrates these values of loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity and personal courage and makes them integral to success in America's Army.

AFAIK, Americas Army is not open source but I don't know if it's because it's classified or because of license issues with UT. See http://forum.americasarmy.com/viewtopic.php?t=310306 for more details. Maybe the Army can help you :)

Pascal Thivent
  • 562,542
  • 136
  • 1,062
  • 1,124
2

http://springrts.com is an OpenSource battle simulator using physics and very large maps. You can customize it as you wish, build in AIs do behave in different ways, and play against each other.

It's written in C/C++, and there is a very active community around it. A very warm and accepting community in fact I feel.

Hugh Perkins
  • 7,975
  • 7
  • 63
  • 71
1

DIS is an open standard for linking military simulations together. There are open soruce libraries for the protocol layer. Perhaps a little digging will find some open clients as well.

AShelly
  • 34,686
  • 15
  • 91
  • 152
  • Thank you for the link. Are you aware of any clients, not exclusively open source? – luvieere Nov 24 '09 at 22:16
  • 10 years ago I worked with several clients under development by defense contractors. There were Abrams and Bradley crew training simulators, and a "god's eye view" client for setting up scenarios. I heard rumors of an infantry client, but I never saw it. – AShelly Nov 25 '09 at 00:29
1

Not sure if it's what you're looking for, but you might want to check out Operation Flashpoint and Armed Assault by Bohemia Interactive. As far as I know, the games are based on Virtual Battlespace - a military simulator. Might find something in there.

gamers2000
  • 1,847
  • 2
  • 14
  • 15
  • Other way round. Bohemia made VBS based on Mohaa, it's basically mohaa with real physics and more tactics. – Spence Nov 30 '09 at 06:54
  • Mohaa... Medal Of Honor : Allied Assault? If so - doubt that Bohemia has anything to do with MOHAA. – gamers2000 Dec 05 '09 at 18:09
1

Also - WinSPMBT might be somewhat useful. It's not open source, but it's a pretty in-depth simulation of company-level combat.

gamers2000
  • 1,847
  • 2
  • 14
  • 15
1

Take a look at OpenEaagles.

Theo
  • 11
  • 2