MACE User’s Group (MUG)

Tuesday May 2nd – Thursday May 4th 2023

Please join us at the Emerald Convention Center, 1250 Miracle Strip Parkway SE, Fort Walton Beach Florida
Please RSVP by April 24th, 2023

Open to all MACE users, please join us at the MACE Users Group (MUG) meeting where we will be demonstrating and training the latest capabilities of MACE, showcasing our 3D visualization plug-in ARMOR, along with several commercial image generators, and discussing the MACE road map for 2023 and beyond.  This is a great training opportunity to learn how best MACE can work in your environment, all while meeting and working with the team behind the development of MACE.  What’s more, this event is free to all attendees with no landing fee.  Don’t delay, get registered now by sending a RSVP to support@bssim.com.

Highlights will include latest improvements to MACE’s:

  • Further Enhanced C3 and Integrated Air Defense Systems (IADS) Modeling
  • UI Improvements: MOCT, SHAPE Tools, Mission Builder
  • Combat Air Forces (CAF) DMO MP18 compliance efforts
  • Enhancements to BSI’s Augmented Reality Mission Observation and Rehearsal (ARMOR) VR/AR system
  • Various performance improvements

This year’s MUG will offer smaller breakout classes depending on MACE interest areas and skill levels such that attendees can customize their curriculum.  More to follow as we build out a detailed schedule.

To get the most out of the MUG, please bring a laptop.  BSI will provide software keys during the MUG, so no need to bring any hardware keys you might have.  Prior to the MUG, BSI will send out links to download and install the latest software and instructions to get you up and running ahead of the MUG.  If you require more information to gain approval from your IT support to install MACE and related software, please contact us at support@bssim.com.

MACE showcasing the ability to represent a complex ground and air environment within an Integrated Air Defense System (IADS)

A-10 Scene Rendered by MetaVR’s Virtual Reality Scene Generator (VRSG)

 If you have any questions ahead of the MUG, please contact us directly at support@bssim.com.  We look forward to seeing you there!

Don’t Settle for Only Part of the Battlespace!

Below are a handful of our latest MACE videos that give you an idea on just a few of the new features that are now available in MACE and ARMOR.  Be sure to check out our videos page for more great BSI content, including MACE training videos.

This video shows the latest in BSI’s progress on ARMOR, including weather effects, route analysis and radar beam visualization. All ARMOR terrain is created directly within MACE, using worldwide GIS data that ships with MACE.

This short video demonstrates MACE’s ability to identify, and ARMOR’s ability to display, potential blue-on-blue jamming during a simulated MACE mission. MACE is a physics-based, pulse-level many-on-many simulation ideal for EW planning and analysis, mission engineering and mission rehearsal.

During the Bold Quest 2022 exercise, Battlespace Simulations, Inc. (BSI) provided technical support for the Air Force Agency for Modeling and Simulation (AFAMS) as they demonstrated recent AFAMS-funded improvements and capabilities for distributed simulation. These included improvements to infrared (IR) and radar cross section (RCS) signature modeling across a distributed network as well as improvements to net-enabled weapon modeling. During the exercise, an ad hoc network was created incorporating the following MACE-based systems: the ARES-D system provided by AFSOC using MACE and MVRsimulations’ Virtual Reality Scene Generator (VRSG), a VR JTAC system provided by HAVIK, and extended reality (XR) mission observation and debrief capabilities provided by BSI’s ARMOR. This video highlights some of the events and capabilities demonstrated during the exercise.

This video shows a blue vs red scenario in the Straight of Hormuz. Scenario creation and simulation of all electronic warfare and kinetic effects is done by BSI’s MACE. 3D rendering is done by BSI’s ARMOR (made in Unity).

Before I/ITSEC 2022, we experimented with having a demonstration on constant rotation of a MACE mission featuring the latest in ARMOR. This video shows this experiment as we pushed the limits of what ARMOR could show. We move the camera quickly from orbit, to the cockpit, to the street corner and back again. This ability was done via a CodeScript, a feature of MACE where the user can write code to directly influence how MACE operates from very easy automation to low level control. In this case, it read a document stating how to long to attach to an entity and in what attachment mode.

MVRsimulation’s DJFT uses BSI’s MACE to generate and simulate Joint Fires training scenarios, and to communicate with Sierra Nevada Corporation’s TRAX software to bring Digitally Aided Close Air Support (DACAS) into the DJFT.  Learn more at https://www.mvrsimulation.com/products/deployable-joint-fires-trainer.html

New for MACE 2021R1 – the Mission Rehearsal Tool is a suite of advanced analytical tools, including calculating and displaying radar and radio propagation (using Deygout’s double knife-edge diffraction method), analyzing a route for exposure to threats, and finally for performing missile flyouts vs defensive maneuvers along the route.

Previous Year’s Course Selection

MACE Basics

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Lesson One: MACE Overview & Setup
This lesson is designed to provide users with an overview of MACE and outlines the various uses and capabilities of the software, as well as how to configure all of the settings and data paths when MACE is initially installed. Students will be shown how to set up data paths for maps & charts, elevation, imagery as well as how to connect to the OSM server and proper use of MACE map projections.
Lesson Two: Understanding the User Interface
This lesson is designed to teach users the basic operations within MACE, including how to interact with the map, how to load a mission, and how to access the various property windows. Students will learn the difference between platforms, sites and cultural entities as well as review the contents of the various property windows. Adding and removing equipment from platforms will also be covered.
Lesson Three: Building Missions
During this lesson students will be shown how to perform the basic operations to build a mission, such as adding & removing entities and building routes & formations. Domain-specific entity behaviors such as loiters for aircraft, road-following for vehicles, and pathfinding/random walks for lifeforms will also be covered. Students will also have an opportunity to create a basic mission on their own.
Lesson Four: Mission Execution
During this lesson students will be shown how to “run” a MACE mission and dynamically control various parts of the mission. Students will control both individual entities and groups of entities. This lesson will also explain the various tools and information available during mission execution such as heading lines, health bars, detection indications, delta states, orbit tool, etc.
Lesson Five: MACE Settings
This lesson is designed to show how to configure MACE System and Mission settings for user-specific needs such as: coordinate format, mission log, weather, visual settings (IG), joystick settings, and distributed mission settings. Users will also be shown how to use the layer manager to affect what is shown in the MACE mission area and other layers that affect mission operations, such as the collision avoidance feature.

MACE Intermediate

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Lesson One: Introduction to the Script Editor
In this lesson, students will learn how to create basic scripts using the Script editor. Users will learn how to create triggers and actions for entities within a specific MACE mission.
Lesson Two: Advanced Scripting & Buttonized Scripts
In this lesson, students will learn how to create advanced scripts, including the use of variables within scripts, and using abstract platform references to ‘buttonize’ scripts for re-use in any mission.
Lesson Three: JTAC/Joint Fires tools – In Depth
This lesson is designed to expand on Joint Fires interfaces such as the 9-Line, 5-Line, CFF and Fire Planning interfaces.
Open Session/Discussion
Opportunity for open discussion on anything MACE.  Have questions, need additional clarification, looking for new features, this is a great time to ask the MACE engineering team directly!

MACE Advanced

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Lesson One: Electronic Warfare Modeling
This lesson is designed to show users how to use MACE to perform advanced dynamic EW modeling. Topic covered will include building an IADS, assigning radar systems and jamming pods to platforms, and radar/IADS behavior in MACE.
Lesson Two: Advanced Topics
This lesson is a flexible user-driven lesson to examine specific needs such as Man-in-the-Loop flight simulation (setting up a MACE role player station, shoot from sensor, etc), DIScord and Viper DIS Radio integration.
Lesson Three: The Mission Objects Configuration Tool (MOCT)
This lesson is designed for what we call “power users” who will be responsible for maintaining/customizing the data used in MACE. In this lesson students will be shown where these files are located and which types of data are editable and extensible using the Mission Objects Configuration Tool (MOCT). Users will learn how to use the MOCT to create and modify the data that MACE consumes at runtime.
Open Session/Discussion
Opportunity for open discussion on anything MACE.  Have questions, need additional clarification, looking for new features, this is a great time to ask the MACE engineering team directly!
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