The US Army has been an early adopter of using video game technology as part of combat training. Virtual reality systems, such as the Dismounted Soldier Training System (DSTS), even put the soldier into the “game,” using body sensors and virtual reality goggles. But now the Army is doing this with soldiers in a different way—using their actual physical fitness to affect how their on-screen avatars look and perform in simulation.

Virtual Battlespace 3, developed by Bohemia Interactive, is a full-on, multiplayer, networked first-person shooter for the military set, designed both for combat training and actual mission rehearsal. Its predecessor, Virtual Battlespace 2, became the standard simulator for NATO ground forces training, and it's been in use for more than five years. But now the Army is rolling out VB3 as its “flagship” virtual training platform and incorporating it into virtual reality systems like the DSTS and the Close Combat Tactical Trainer, in part because of the added realism of the latest simulator.

Part of that realism is in avatar customization. If a soldier is overweight, their avatar will be overweight too. “When they tested this last year,” Robert Munsey, an analyst with the Army’s Training and Doctrination Command (TRADOC) Capability Manager for Virtual and Gaming, told the Army News Service, “one of the soldiers said, ‘I look fat.’ And the other soldier sitting right next to him said, ‘That’s because you are fat.’”

Virtual Battlespace 3 certainly isn’t the first gaming system to reflect a player’s fitness on-screen. Nintendo’s Wii Fit and Wii Fit U have adjusted the appearance of players’ avatars based on their Body Mass Index (BMI) and body control on the Wii Balance Board. But VB3’s use of fitness input goes beyond appearance. VB3 also models the endurance of players based on their Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT) scores.

There’s a “fatigue bar” at the top left of the game’s screen that shows an individual’s endurance, reflecting his or her ability to move quickly or perform various tasks. How quickly it drops is affected by the soldier’s APFT score—those at the lower end of the score range will find their virtual selves tire a lot faster than those who score at average or above. “Then the small-unit leaders have the capability to understand the performance of their squad,” Munsey said.

Another part of that additional realism is reflected in how it uses soldiers’ personal data to configure their virtual selves. Unlike Halo or Titanfall, an avatar can’t just pick up any weapon—soldiers won’t be able to equip with weapon systems they haven’t been qualified on. Qualification scores are also an input for how effective soldiers are with the weapons they carry.

VB3 can be used by Army units to train on a variety of tasks anywhere they can get access to networked computers. It should provide training on over 100 types of Army-specified “combined arms” tasks—including setting up and operating a checkpoint, aerial assaults, and calling for artillery support. Using its multiple map support and procedural terrain filling, it can model a three-dimensional operational area of up to four million square kilometers, with “high detail insets” for areas of specific interest. It also includes improved artificial intelligence for civilians and adversary forces, using “ambience” plug-ins to model urban or rural civilian activity and insurgent group behavior.