14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft is coking a high-fidelity 3-D visual simulation platform that has at its basis the experience built developing the Flight Simulator franchise. The Microsoft ESP platform is designed to leverage immersive game-based technology to a range of visual simulation scenarios from training to learning and to research and development modeling for the aviation industry, both military and commercial. According to the company's current estimates, ESP will be made available beginning with January 1 2008 and will come with a price tag of 799 per machine when it comes down to client licenses. The simulation platform will also be delivered via Volume Licensing with a different pricing model. The Redmond company will also offer a software development kit for the platform for $99.
"With over half of today's work force having grown up playing immersive computer-based games, businesses, governments, trade schools and universities are seeking affordable solutions that enable immersive learning experiences. Improving training and learning outcomes is an important goal of most organizations. Microsoft ESP makes it easy and cost-effective for organizations to apply the advantages of games-based technology to serious learning and training endeavors," revealed Shawn Firminger, studio manager for the Microsoft ACES Studio at Microsoft.
The Redmond company is positioning ESP as a simulation platform that will integrate seamlessly with commercial off-the-shelf hardware and software designed for PCs. Via ESP, Microsoft is offering not only a PC and Windows based simulation engine, but also "comprehensive set of tools, applications programming interfaces, documentation to support code development, content integration and scenario-building capabilities, along with an extensive base of world content that can be tailored for custom solutions. Partners and developers can add structured experiences or missions, content such as terrain and scenery, scenarios, and hardware devices to augment existing solutions, or they can build and deploy new solutions that address the mission-critical requirements of their customers", the company revealed.
The simulations provided by ESP will be dynamic and the 3-D experiences would reproduce a luxuriant variety of high-fidelity scenery. Microsoft emphasized that the platform comes complete with a configurable weather model, scene generation capabilities, and multilayer functionality that essentially enables up to 30 users to interact in a singular scenario.