Updating AIS and ADS-B Clutter Data in VR-Forces
The VRF ADS-B and AIS data distributed with VRF for use with Clutter Entities is generally not possible for a customer to upgrade. Here's why:
MAK purchased a month’s worth of worldwide satellite-collected data from Spire with rights to distribute it in the VR-Forces product. This is the basis for the data set distributed in VR-Forces when you create a ship or an aircraft clutter area. The goal of this feature was to provide realistic background clutter—planes and ships—for simulations, including accurate transmitter/transponder information to support electronic clutter as well.
To use this satellite data, we had to process it fairly extensively. The raw data was extremely problematic, including issues such as:
Aircraft flying under terrain
Aircraft and ships jumping hundreds of miles between updates
Vehicles traveling at over Mach 5
Aircraft with altitude changes of 15,000 feet per second
Aircraft and ship movement that wasn’t easily dead reckonable leading to network flooding
These errors stem from fused data sources used in the collection, and general noise in the dataset.
We manually curated the data extensively. We also wrote scripts to automate some cleanup, like removing underground planes. The incoming data wasn't smoothed, so velocities often didn’t align with realistic motion. We addressed this by smoothing and interpolating sparse data points—sometimes by hand, sometimes with internal custom-built tools.
The tools used were not distributed, were not code-reviewed, and were very specific to the Spire dataset and object model we used.
Can customers update the data themselves?
Not realistically. We could share the code used to process the Spire dataset so customers could generate the same data format. However, our internal optimized data format is not documented. Even if the data format were documented, customers would need to extensively curate the data set and we don’t know how that will impact VR-Forces behaviors. We likely would send any tools we built to a customer who asked as part of standard support, but we wouldn’t be in a position to explain the tool or even verify that it still works.
Is there any solution?
Yes, customers can work with MAK to upgrade the data set as part of a premium support package. Customers could:
Contract us to procure and process updated data from Spire.
Purchase the data themselves from Spire and purchase premium support to help with processing.
What about live data?
The approach to integrate live data would be completely different. We recommend using a gateway. Please contact sales@mak.com to be introduced to a company that has such a tool.