Welcome
OpenEaagles is a multi-platform simulation framework targeted to help simulation engineers and software developers rapidly prototype and build robust, scalable, virtual, constructive, stand-alone, and distributed simulation applications. It has been used extensively to build applications that demand real-time performance. This includes applications to conduct human factor studies, operator training, and the development of complete distributed virtual simulation systems. OpenEaagles has also been used to build stand-alone and distributed constructive applications oriented at system analysis.
OpenEaagles is an acronym that stands for the Open Extensible Architecture for the Analysis and Generation of Linked Simulations. It is a mature software framework as it has been in active development for over a decade. The framework includes interoperability interfaces to support the development of distributed applications, as it includes interfaces that support the Distributed Interactive Simulation (DIS) protocol. Numerous DIS compliant distributed simulation applications have been built using this framework as the foundation.
The framework is also described in a recent book publication titled the "Design & Construction of Virtual and Constructive Simulations Using OpenEaagles." This is one of the first modeling and simulation books published that focuses on the construction techniques of virtual and constructive performance-oriented high fidelity simulations.
Disclaimer: "The OpenEaagles project and website is maintained by a voluntary association of individuals working to maintain and improve the publicly released software code. It is not sponsored by, nor is it funded by, the United States Air Force."
Latest Project News
Version Numbering Scheme Changed
Monday, January 05 2009 : After some discussion recently held between core team and forum members, we decided to change the version numbering scheme used for OpenEaagles. This new scheme will follow the "Year.Month" style, also known as the "Ubuntu version scheme".
Past versions using the older "Year_MonthDay" (for example 2008_1025) style have been updated throughout the website for the sake of consistency.
I/ITSEC 2008 Tutorial Slides
Monday, December 08 2008 : The slides used in the "Design & Implementation of Virtual Simulations" tutorial session at I/ITSEC have been posted. They can be found on the Documentation page.
I/ITSEC 2008 News
Tuesday, November 26 2008 : We will be presenting a tutorial session titled "Design & Implementation of Virtual Simulations" at I/ITSEC this year. The session will be held on Monday, December 1 from 1030-1200 Room 414 CD. The tutorial will present a number of open-source projects such as the Virtual Terrain Project, SubrScene Image Generation Solution (IGS), CIGI, the poRTIco project, JSBSim and of course OpenEaagles. The focus is on building a virtual simulation leveraging these projects.
As a demostration, a completely open-source virtual simulation system based on all these projects can be found at the Calytrix booth #2647. An example OpenEaagles-based application will be connected into a distributed environment that includes Microsoft ESP Visual Simulation Platform, BreakAway's mosbe, Calytrix's Combat Net Radio, VBS2, eSim Games Steel Beasts and OneSAF.
Version 8.10 Posted
Saturday, October 04 2008 : Lots of details addressed in this version including our obsession with eliminating as many Visual Studio warnings as possible. The naming convention of input files has been changed. Files named with an extension of ".d" have been changed to ".epp" to indicate it's an input file used in the process of building a final description. Final loadable input files previously named with an extension of ".dd" has been changed to ".edl". EDL stands for Eaagles Description Language.
GUI Interface Examples Update
Saturday, October 04 2008 : New versions of all the GUI example packages which includes FOX, both versions of FLTK and wxWidgets has been uploaded. They can be found on the GUI Support page.
GUI Interface Examples
Saturday, July 19 2008 : GUI examples and packages for FOX, FLTK (both versions) and wxWidgets are now available off the GUI Support page. All packages can be compiled for Windows and Linux. They demonstrate how to leverage these popular x-platform GUI frameworks with OpenEaagles simulation and graphic capabilities.
Version 8.06 Posted
Wednesday, June 25 2008 : A new version which rolls up all fixes found to date and breaks out the FOX, FLTK and wxWidgets GUI interface classes into their own respective packages has been posted. Fixes include support for 64-bit Linux, GCC 4.3 compilers and better adherence to coding standards in a few areas. GUI examples and packages will be available for download directly from the new GUI Support page soon. Starting with this version we have transitioned to the standard GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) to ensure maximum flexibility with code use in both open and commercial settings. See License page for additional details.
Version 8.03 Posted
Sunday, March 30 2008 : A new version has been posted on Sourceforge. This version rolls up all fixes found to date and a few minor enhancements with regard to units (such as Angles, etc) and font handling. This version also includes is a terrain reader for the NASA Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) digital topographic data. See the NASA site for additional details.
PC Working Group Conference 2008
Thursday, March 27 2008 : A 30 minutes briefing on OpenEaagles will be presented at the PC Working Group Conference in Las Vegas on April 9th.
Forum Access a Little Slow
Tuesday, March 11 2008 : Access to the forum is a little on the slow side. I've pinged the web hosting service and they know about the problem. It works, you just have to be patient. Hopefully, it will be fixed soon.
AIAA Newsletter Article
Saturday, February 2 2008 : An article about OpenEaagles can be found in the January 2008 issue of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Modeling and Simulation newsletter. The newsletter can be found on the documentation page.
Forum Now Open
Thursday, January 3 2008 : A forum for the OpenEaagles project has been established. It can be accessed by clicking on the Forum link on the sidebar. Announcement, updates, fixes and questions about the codebase will be provided in the forum. Check it out!
Virtual and Constructive Simulations Book Now Available
Wednesday, December 19 2007 : The book titled "Designing & Implementing Virtual and Constructive Simulations Using OpenEaagles" is now available for purchase both in paperback or hardcover.
SimpleOtw Updated
Monday, December 10 2007 : The simple out-the-window heads up display application "SimpleOtw" has been updated. The application utilizes a few components from OpenEaagles but primarly leverages OpenSceneGraph to draw the 3D graphics. It is now available on Sourceforge. The package now includes all third party libraries "SimpleOtw3rdParty" from OpenSceneGraph to link against, and required Dlls to run. Everything was compiled using Vistual C++ 2005 Express Service Pack 1.
Version 7.12 Posted
Monday, December 10 2007 : A new version has been posted on Sourceforge. This is the one referenced by the book titled "Designing & Implementing Virtual and Constructive Simulations Using OpenEaagles." When compared to previous versions you will notice that we have specifically separated C++ source code implementation files (.cpp) from header files (.h). This facilitates the installation of header and library files in Linux (i.e. "make install"). Also of note is the removal of the "Lc" prefix in front of class names in the basic and basicGL libraries. Since OpenEaagles makes extensive use of namespaces, the legacy prefix is no longer needed. This has been compiled with Visual C++ 2005 Express Service Pack 1 and Fedora 8. Note: Visual C++ 2005 Express Service Pack #1 is an important service pack. All of the third party libraries included in OpenEaagles3rdParty have been compiled using this version.
This is a good solid version and should serve as a nice baseline for some anticipated updates. OpenEaagles contains plenty of power and punch to build a wide variety of virtual and constructive simulation systems. The next few releases will focus on improving installation and integration issues to the point where it is seamless.
I/ITSEC 2007 News
Sunday, December 02 2007 : I/ITSEC 2007 was a great success this year for OpenEaagles. Special thanks to the CACI folks for providing us some booth space for an attractive display. The first printed copies of "Designing & Implementing Virtual and Constructive Simulations Using OpenEaagles" arrived via UPS the first day of the show. Talk about cutting it close! By the end of the show we had sold out and were taking advance orders. Shortly we will be posting a new OpenEaagles version that compliments the book examples.
I/ITSEC 2007 News
Friday, November 16 2007 : Stop by and see the variety of applications that can be built utilizing the OpenEaagles framework at I/ITSEC this year (Nov 26-29). Knowledgeable folks will be available to answer questions and development activities. We will also have copies of the new book titled "Designing & Implementing Virtual and Constructive Simulations Using OpenEaagles" on display (see below). We will be located in the CACI booth # 2731.
Fedora 8 Released, Linux Notes Updated
Monday, November 12 2007 : The Linux Notes page has been updated. It now includes installation notes for the prerequisite FTGL, freetype and freeglut graphics libraries in order to build OpenEaagles. It also contains installation and compliation instructions for the CIGI interface and notes on the OpenEaagles GUI interface classes.
Hot Off the Press, Almost
Thursday, November 8 2007 : A new book focused on developing virtual and constructive simulations is in the process of being published by The Wright State Reseach Institute. It is titled the "Design & Construction of Virtual and Constructive Simulations Using OpenEaagles." This 280 page book consists of eight chapters as follows: 1) Introduction, 2) Background on Modeling and Simulation, 3) Basic Data Types & Classes, 4) Crafting Simulation, 5) Constructive Simulation, 6) Input Language, 7) Developing Compliant Simulations and 8) Developing Virtual Simulations. To our knowledge, this is the first hands on book to cover the design and implementation of both virtual and construction simulation applications. The book will come with example applications based off of the upcoming OpenEaagles version.
Human Behavior Modeling
Thursday, August 9 2007 : The paper titled "An Approach To Human Behavior Modeling In An Air Force Simulation" published at the 2005 Winter Simulation Conference has been added to the documentation page. It presents a multi-level approach to incorporating more realistic human behavior models into simulations. The intelligent agents are hosted and leverage the OpenEaagles framework.
SubrScene Image Generator Now Available
Tuesday, July 17 2007 : The SubrScene visualization toolkit has been released into the open-source world. SubrScene has been used extensively as the primary image generator (IG) system for OpenEaagles-based applications. This includes driving single or multiple video displays (channels) and domes. A typical configuration for assembling an interactive virtual simulator consists of the execution of an OpenEaagles-based application (the simulation), coupled with an IG system, like SubrScene to drive scenegraph based visuals, such as heads-up displays. A good mix is to utilize OpenEaagles graphics capabilities to draw interactive operator displays such as heads-down devices with its rich set of instruments, while tapping into SubrScene's scenegraph capabilities to draw complex 3D visuals. With SubrScene's SDK, scenegraph capabilities can be embedded into OpenEaagles-based operator displays.
Linux Notes for Fedora 7 Added
Monday, July 16 2007 : A linux notes page has been added to the site that contains a lot of useful installation tips when working with Fedora 7.
Fedora Thread Issue Fixed
Monday, July 2 2007 : The threading issue with Linux has been fixed. Just download this new version of the Station class and replace it in the simulation directory. It will be incorporated into the next version.
Fedora Thread Issue
Thursday, June 14 2007 : It has been discovered that the OpenEaagles "network" thread is not running correctly with either Fedora Core 6 or the latest Fedora 7. We believe is has to do with how the new thread library is now implemented in Linux. A fix is in the works.
Compatible with Windows Vista
Friday, May 4 2007 : OpenEaagles has been tested with Visual C++ 2005 Express and Windows Vista. Everything checks out ok. Note: In order to use Visual C++ 2005 Express with Vista a service pack from Microsoft is required.
PC Working Group Conference 2007
Tuesday, April 10 2007 : A 30 minutes briefing on OpenEaagles will be presented at the PC Working Group Conference in Las Vegas on April 19th.
ThrustMaster HOTAS Cougar Profile Loader for Linux Posted
Sunday, February 4 2007 : The Thrustmaster HOTAS Cougar is a replica U.S. Air Force F-16 block 52 controller (stick and throttle). A Windows-only Control Panel is supplied with the Cougar to configure various options such as the use of the Microstick axes. Normally the Microstick cannot be read from Linux because it cannot be configured from Linux (no Control Panel exists to set them!). This released Linux application can read profile files (that yes, have been created with the Windows Control Panel) and configure the Cougar so that Linux applications can read the Microstick. This enables the high quality, reasonably priced HOTAS Cougar to be used more effectively with flight simulation applications. See the Hotas Cougar page for more information.
Projects Page Established
Thursday, January 18 2007 : With such an emphasis on frameworks, you might think we forgot about the projects and applications based upon OpenEaagles. We'll we didn't, check out the new Projects page for an ever growing list of interesting applications built using the OpenEaagles framework. A host of example applications are included with each OpenEaagles version as well.
Wright State University Documentation Posted
Tuesday, January 16 2007 : Wright State University has posted a Doxygen-based set of documentation for OpenEaagles. They have reformatting much of the source code to facilitate comment and documentation extraction. This online set of documentation contains more information than our first cut with Doxygen. See the Documentation page for more information. WSU is also offering courses in simulation this Spring and Summer that will utilize OpenEaagles. More information to come.
Apollo Command Sevice Module and Lunar Module in Orbit
Wednesday, December 13 2006 : Chris has been busy at work on a new application called "OpenSpace". More information about this application can be found on the Applications page.
Version 6.12 Posted
Monday, December 11 2006 : This version includes both debug and release versions of the JSBSim model library for both Visual C++ 2003 and 2005. This version resolves an interesting issue with the use of STL in Visual C++ 2005. Apparently when using the Standard Template Library (STL), Visual C++ 2005 expects applications compiled in debug mode to be linked to libraries compiled in debug mode if it uses STL. The same goes for release mode compiled applications. Much more discussion on this topic can be found in the newsgroups. So, to avoid the issue all together, we have expanded our 3rd party libraries to include both.
OpenEaagles at ITEA
Saturday, December 9 2006 : Sightings of OpenEaagles sporting a new TENA interoperability interface can be found at the International Test and Evaluation Association (ITEA) Modeling and Simulation Conference in Las Cruces, New Mexico from December 11-14. Check out the Redstone Technical Test Center (RTTC) booth for details.
A Busy Week Comes to a Close
Thursday, December 7 2006 : Thanks to all those who visited our booth during I/ITSEC 2006. We were pleasantly surprised by the number of developers and companies already working with OpenEaagles and the interest by so many others. Make sure to report back on applications you build or any questions you encounter! So many questions were asked that we decided to start up an FAQ page. We are busy writing answers. Check back soon.
Version 6.11 Posted
Thursday, November 30 2006 : This version includes the new 3D EADI instrument, a new example application (mainSim3) which uses it, and a CIGI interface for IG systems. With the example application driving the SimpleOTW application you can now "fly" around our recently released visual database. Note: For applications that utilize JSBSim and are compiled with Visual C++ Express 2005, please compile in Debug mode otherwise your application may fail. We hope to have a solution soon. December 1, 2006 Update! The problem with building a OpenEaagles based application linked with JSBSim under Visual C++ 2005 Express has apparently been solved. A new posting of OpenEaagles with a more inclusive set of 3rd party libraries will be posted soon.
Visual Database & SimpleOTW Posted
Wednesday, November 29 2006 : The Portland, Oregon visual database and the SimpleOTW viewer application is now available for download.
Portland, Oregon Visual Database
Wednesday, November 22 2006 : Our first open source visual database is in the works. It was created by Rob Subr and will be shown at I/ITSEC 2006 along with a simple out-the-window (OTW) application called SimpleOTW. Both the database and application will posted on this site shortly. SimpleOTW was created leveraging OpenSceneGraph's scene graph rendering capabilities and OpenEaagles for input file definition, parsing and network support. If you happen to be at I/ITSEC, please stop by for a demo. OpenEaagles can be found on display in both booth #2077 and the General Dynamics booth #1815. We can also copy the database to your memory stick if desired. (It will save you time on the download as it's over 100MB in size.)
3D EADI Coming Soon
Saturday, November 18 2006 : This new 3 dimensional Electronic Attitude Direction Indicator (EADI) will be included in the OpenEaagles instrument package soon. It should be on display at I/ITSEC 2006.
More Documentation Posted
Tuesday, November 14 2006 : Documentation in the form of conference papers, presentations, coding standards, training slide sets, and online doxygen generated output have been posted.
Visual C++ 2005 Express Installation Video
Saturday, November 11 2006 : The first in a series of training videos has been released. Click on the "Videos" link for more information.
Version 6.10b Posted
Thursday, October 26 2006 : Makefile improvements for Linux plus additional functionality added to Joystick device class highlight the significant changes in this release. Additional notes concerning JSBSim installation under Linux also included.
Fedora Core 6
Wednesday, October 25 2006 : Just tested OpenEaagles installation and compilation with the newly released Fedora Core 6. Everything checks out ok.
Version 6.10a Posted
Sunday, October 22 2006 : This update cleans up a few installation issues and adds JSBSim to mainSim1, mainSim2, and mainx9 example applications. Make sure to read the ReadMe.txt file in the 3rd party directory to properly install the correct libraries to link against if you are using Visual Studio.
Version 6.10 Posted
Monday, October 9 2006 : JSBSim interface class added to OpenEaagles vehicles library and JSBSim library added to 3rd party support packages for Visual C++ 2003 and 2005 Express. We still need to do some fine tuning, but it works. A simple example that exercises JSBSim is also in the works. Also the Doxygen configuration files have been updated to generate optional collaboration diagrams.
JSBSim Newletter Article
Tuesday, September 26 2006 : JSBSim is a high quality open source flight dynamics model that, thanks to Chris Buell, will be available in the next version of OpenEaagles. Check out the summer 2006 issue of the JSBSIM Quarterly newsletter for details.
We Have A Logo
Thursday, September 14 2006 : Special thanks to Jamil Khatib for allowing us to lift some of the artistic ideas from the OpenTech Project (a distribution package for open-source EDA tools and hardware designs) logo to use in our own. Thanks again!
Version 6.08a Posted
Thursday, August 31 2006 : General update of source code. Also thanks the Bob Pritchard we now have a Doxygen configuration file for OpenEaagles. More documentation to be posted soon.
Version 6.08 Posted
Saturday, August 5 2006 : This version streamlines the installation process for users of Visual C++ 2003 and Visual C++ 2005 Express. A package of precompiled 3rd party support tools such as freetype, FTGL, freeglut, FOX GUI Toolkit, and FLTK has been supplied to greatly simplify a Windows installation. This version has also been compiled with GCC in Fedora Core 5.
I/ITSEC 2006
Wednesday, August 2 2006 : Come see the variety of applications built utilizing the OpenEaagles framework at I/ITSEC (Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation & Education Conference). Knowledgeable folks will be available to answer your questions. A draft copy of a conference paper to be presented this year on the OpenEaagles architecture and framework is now available.
Website and Sourceforge Project Established
Saturday, July 29 2006 : This website and the OpenEaagles sourceforge project has been created to facilitate the distribution of software. This site will serve as the primary source for OpenEaagles news and information.
Public Domain Release
Monday, July 17 2006 : OpenEaagles is based upon Eaagles, a popular simulation framework developed and maintained by the U.S. Air Force to support a multitude of simulation activities. OpenEaagles is a subset of Eaagles and has just been approved for public release.