A 3D simulation platform from Australian developer Simmersion has been customised to facilitate site planning, asset management and training for the mining sector.

Simmersion CEO . Bob Quodling said that using simulations could translate to multimillion-dollar savings in the extremely capital-intensive industry.

“Visualisation and simulation tools can be used to improve everything from scenario planning and asset tracking to staff site orientation and worker training,” he said.

“Simmersion’s Mycosm Studio makes it more efficient to construct virtual solutions. No specific technical skills are needed and mining companies can take advantage of an advanced 3D graphics platform at an affordable price.  They can start using it straight away without the steep learning curve of expensive high-end 3D engines.”

Mycosm Studio can construct and publish 3D environments based on real or imaginary data, which are then run in the downloadable Mycosm Player.

Mycosm is designed to allow models from many of the available CAD packages to be combined with the outputs from a range of (OGC compliant) geospatial software platforms e.g. .3ds and .fbx CAD formats; asci xyz and .dxf terrain formats; and .tif, .bmp, .jpg, .png, .dds texture formats.

It takes content from 3D modeling packages such as 3ds Max and Maya into a real time environment. Terrains can be created using brush-based sculpting and painting tools with fine control over meshing and texture layering. TIN based meshing and ortho-photo import allows for real-world data to be used. Mycosm is optimised to handle large, complex terrains. External terrains created in Bryce can be imported.

Mycosm incorporates a range of middleware. With support for Speedtree trees, plants and other vegetation can be imported into your environments. Mycosm also includes a powerful Python scripting editor that can be used to animate your environment or interact with external data or applications

XML is used for data interchange and interoperability with external data sources and applications. An open API allows integration with a broad range of back-end systems.

A free, trial version of Mycosm can be downloaded from www.mycosm.com