Military Training FAQ

Table of Contents

• Why is training realism so important?
• What are the differences between a live fire range and a simulator?
• What is 360 degree training?
• Why does VirTra use both video and CGI for scenarios?
• What is VirTra's ballistic calculator accuracy?
• What are the ballistic calculator features?
• How does VirTra's tracking calibration work?
• Why do some simulators give people vertigo and others don't?
• Young people today are so accustomed to video games, won’t they be able to handle training that is more like a video game than real life?

Why is training realism so important?

One critical component of a quality firearms training simulation is the ‘realism’ it provides. Real-world performance is often directly related to the realism and intensity of training. Said another way, the more realistic the training exercise, the more skills are transferable to a real-world situation. Thus, realism is critically important to any close combat tactical trainer.

One of VirTra’s primary missions is to make simulated training as realistic as humanly possible. VirTra goes to great lengths to recreate the real-world in the simulator: from incredibly realistic 3D audio and special effects to realistic recoil training firearms and shoot back capabilities – just to name a few.

VirTra’s attention to detail and higher standard for realism in military engagement skills simulation training leads to improved real-world skills for the trainees. Below is a chart that graphically shows the expected normal value relationship between simulation realism and real-world improvement.

What are the differences between a live fire range and a simulator?

VirTra considers live fire range training to be irreplaceable in the process of firearm training. However, firearm training simulators are now able to greatly compliment the training on a live fire range. VirTra provides a long list of recoil kits for various model firearms which permits realistic operation of the firearm with good recoil, but without a live bullet traveling downrange. The lack of a live round enables entirely new ways to train.

The addition of a firearm simulator provides:

1. Judgment training - Advanced judgment or critical thinking skills (decision-making is required as to if/when you shoot or with what level of force you should use).


2. Threats during training - The stress or nerviness receiving return fire can be safely simulated with Threat-Fire in the simulator. In fact, many times an officer doesn’t even know there is a threat until they feel an impact on their bullet-proof vest. This cannot be implemented on the range.


3. 360-degree training – due to the safety requirements, officers are encouraged to focus directly in front of them at the range, instead of monitoring 360-degrees around them at all times. In a real-world engagement, an officer often must shoot in a different direction, shoot off-balance, instantly spin 300 degrees to look for the threat, etc. This cannot be implemented on the range.


4. Psychological preparation – It is unnatural for most people to shoot another human. Shooting at paper targets does not mentally prepare an officer to engage live targets. Unfortunately, given the correct situation, an officer must be psychologically prepared to immediately take the life of another human. Difficult to accomplish on a range.


5. Moving target – Many times an officer must shoot at a moving human target. This is a difficult skill to acquire and demands repeat practice. Expensive and problematic to do at a range.


6. Safety – The use of live ammunition requires extensive safety requirements that reduce the ability of real-world training on a range.


7. Cost and access – Live ammunition is expensive and at times not even available due to worldwide shortages out of your control.


8. Environmental agency – Many shooting ranges are closed every year due to environmental concerns; with a simulator there is zero environmental impact, zero lead in the air, zero chance of shutting down training.


9. Operation – An indoor firearm simulator can operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, regardless of weather.

What is 360 degree training?

The next real-world engagement will most certainly occur in our 360-degree world. Many report that the first time they realized they were in a battle for their life was when they felt a bullet impacting the Kevlar on their back or sides, which is simulated with the Threat-Fire device. When training on a single-screen simulator, the officer never has to turn 90 degrees to face a potential threat. A single-screen simulator also reinforces tunnel vision, as only a small portion of the 360-degree world is even available for training. Of course, it is not safe to practice 360-degree training with multiple participants on a live fire range. It is both critical for survival and difficult to maintain situational awareness throughout a real engagement, but this takes training and practice on a multi-screen video simulator, such as the VirTra 180 MIL or VirTra 300 MIL simulator.

Why does VirTra use both video and CGI for scenarios?

For simulated training exercises to be realistic and have valid psychological impact, the trainee must consider the people in the scenario to be ‘human.’ The human brain is exceptional at detecting a ‘fake’ person when they are closer than about 30 meters (100 feet). The look and movement of people is perfectly captured by high quality video, but CGI creates ‘approximations’ of people. Even with the latest CGI technology, ‘generated’ CGI humans do not look and move like real people when viewing them at distances closer than about 30 meters (100 feet).

What is VirTra's ballistic calculator accuracy?

VirTra's simulators come equipped with the finest exterior ballistics software on the market for marksmanship training. This software is being utilized by thousands of military and law enforcement agencies worldwide. It is also used by ammunition manufacturers.

In 1992, Dr. Oehler demonstrated the accuracy of the ballistic calculator using an ultrasonic sensor. Given a trial velocity and distance, one function of the ballistic calculator returns the position of the bullet at the target and the time of flight. Passing that time of flight along with the initial velocity near the muzzle, distance, and a trial ballistic coefficient of the bullet to another function returns the velocity at the target. The difference between the trial velocity and the calculated velocity at the target is used to correct the trial velocity for the next round of calculations. Also, the velocity near the muzzle, the time of flight, and the velocity at the target are used to calculate the ballistic coefficient of the bullet, which is also used in the next round. This reiteration continues until there’s no significant difference between the trial velocity and the calculated velocity. These trials proved out the ballistic calculator is accurate to about .001 cm, which is beyond the accuracy of all known firearms.

Additional independent verification is also possible. The best evidence is to compare the ballistic calculator to Sierra’s published tables. Below is comparison between Sierra’s output with that of the ballistic calculator. As you can see, the values for velocity and path exactly match out to the maximum distance given in Sierra’s table. The load used for this example is a typical M16 load.

What are the ballistic calculator features?

With the ballistics software you can calculate downrange data for virtually any load and set of conditions. Power and ease of use are the hallmark of the ballistics software. This software is integrated into VirTra’s software so during normal operation all the capabilities are neatly hidden from the user. The ballistic calculator takes into account the following variables, which can be adjusted by the user:

1. Air density
2. Muzzle velocity
3. Air temp
4. Sight adjustment
5. Zeroed range
6. Range wind
7. Vertical wind
8. Altitude
9. Barometric pressure
10. Cross wind
11. Humidity
12. Projectile weight and balance
13. Rifling and rotation direction
14. Range slope
15. Sight height

How does VirTra's tracking calibration work?

At the most basic level, a simulator is a combination of a projection on a screen (displaying a target) and a shot-detection camera (detecting a laser fired at the screen). Calibration is the process whereby the projected image is aligned with the shot detection camera.

One of the oldest approaches to calibration was to a 9 or 16 point approach. In this method, the user must shoot targets or walk up to the screen and position a wand on a dot on the screen, then walks back to click ‘next’ and does the next spot and continues until all dots have been completed. This has a number of problems:

1. Accuracy is somewhat determined by how careful and meticulous the user is with positioning on each dot – which changes from person-to-person and from calibration to calibration.

2. The computer, using the data with inaccuracies as described above, then ‘approximates’ or ‘guesses’ at the alignment of all other points on the screen. However, the only points the system has truly calibrated are those 16 spots where a human has tried to hold a wand in the correct position – with unknown and changing results each time.

3. Not user friendly, must use wand on screen or use a simulated firearm as a mouse pointer.

4. Accuracy becomes variable as it provides reasonably good tracking near the center of the screen, but is inaccurate for much of the screen space. Some companies compensate by having all scenarios keep the action in the very center of the screen so customers don’t notice the inaccuracy. However, this reinforces tunnel vision and lowers the level of challenge for all trainees. See real-world training.

5. As the computer has no idea of where exactly the human positioned the wand, the system has no mathematical idea of accuracy; in other words, the wand could be off to the right of the calibration point and no one knows. Without numeric calibration data (and with variable accuracy as described above), the system is mathematically incapable of permitting verified marksmanship training. It can still be a helpful tool for marksmanship training, but to accurately qualify or to truly simulate an outdoor shooting range is technically unknown and mathematically out-of-reach for this approach.

To compound the accuracy problem, the older point-based calibration approach uses math to approximate all locations on the screen and it assumes the projector and camera are linear. This makes the mathematics much simpler, but at the cost of accuracy throughout the entire screen.

Below is an artistic rendering to visualize possible assumptions made by this point-based method; please note that as each company has their own proprietary formulas, this rendering may not be accurate to all point-based tracking methods.

Below is an actual image taken from VirTra’s unique calibration process which maps the entire projected surface to the entire active camera sensor. Yes, every pixel is accurately mapped creating the most precise and automatic calibration method in the world.

Why do you need to calibrate every pixel? Well, each projector and camera is not only unique but also surprisingly complex, usually they are composed of several lens that modify the incoming or outgoing light. Instead of allowing for approximations with simple math, they are composed of multiple 3-dimensional lens in both the projector and the camera, especially as you move towards the sides. Below is a sample diagram of the lens for a common projector, which gives some idea of the complexity of the light path through just one sample component of a standard simulator.

Even if it was possible to implement all the advanced mathematics needed to accurately calibrate the entire projected screen to the shot-detection camera with multiple lens, it is still best (as each camera and projector are slightly different) to use VirTra’s direct calibration. For VirTra’s calibration process, you simply remove the filter on the camera and then you click to have the computer start the calibration. The computer then automatically has the projector display a graphic that moves across the screen, while the camera detects the graphic the projector is displaying. It is basically that simple, no approximations or guessing, and no standing around with a wand or using a firearm to try to 'shoot' calibration targets. VirTra’s calibration has the following advantages:

1. No human wand or other human-error prone approach is used.
2. Easier for the operator (click a button) than manual calibration.
3. Far higher accuracy across the entire screen as no ‘guessing’ or approximations are used in calibration.

Why do some simulators give people vertigo and others don't?

Vertigo occurs when conflicting stimuli is processed by the brain. For a simulator, vertigo is often the result of a mismatch, the simulator video shows one thing, but the inner ear senses something different. If a mismatch exists, then the larger the field of view of the simulator, the greater the vertigo impact.

Vertigo is not a problem with VirTra’s dismounted simulators as the simulated world around the trainee is static and the trainee moves naturally to any position they desire within the training area, avoiding any stimuli mismatch. Special care must be taken in the design of vehicle simulators to minimize vertigo as the simulated world moves around the trainee when inside a vehicle.

Vertigo is usually the result of improper simulator design or implementation. Some other simulator companies actually reduce the size of the screens or even have breaks between the screens in an attempt to reduce vertigo problems in their simulator- this is tragic and avoidable. VirTra's simulator industry veterans are able to avoid vertigo while maintaining a completely immersive training environment through proper simulator design and implementation.

Young people today are so accustomed to video games, won’t they be able to handle training that is more like a video game than real life?

It is true that video game players can more readily control 'computer game' style training. However, we must not confuse the ability of a game player to ‘pick up’ the controls of a CGI-based simulator as a sign that valid training is taking place. It is well understood that the more different a simulator becomes from the real world, the less the trainee is acquiring skills they can use in the real world – it is a linear relationship.

One large drawback of training where the human characters don’t look and feel real, is the lack of any real psychological impact. A trainee must learn that when the situation requires lethal force and the taking of another human life, they must pull the trigger without hesitation – which clearly does not come natural to most people. This type of training requires human realism during training, realism that is outside the abilities of current CGI capabilities. With CGI training, the trainee only engages ‘game characters,’ computer-generated ‘fake’ humans, so the stakes are virtually zero. When a trainee only practices with paper targets or non-realistic simulation, they are often unprepared for the psychological shock of a real life threat. They often hesitate, shoot into the ground, or shoot eradicately, demonstrating a lack of mental preparedness for the encounter. VirTra’s photorealistic simulation and 360-degree training world is designed to replicate the real world as closely as possible. Simulated return fire (see Threat-Fire™) can even be added to generate stress, forcing the trainee to take the exercise seriously and instilling real-world skills during training.