Amazon has announced a new AWS service, AWS SimSpace Weaver, that allows users to build realistic SimCity-like large-scale simulations.
Amazon’s proposed uses would be for city managers testing emergency response systems by simulating natural disasters or investigating sports games’ impact on traffic flow instances to gain insight. Another advantage of running in the cloud is that multiple external parties can view and interact with the simulation in real-time.
During the announcement, a uCrowds video demo shows AWS SimSpace Weaver in action. The demo simulates one million people walking through the streets of Las Vegas. By overlaying geospatial data with simulated crowds of people, it is possible to see how people behave in a computerized city. The demonstration found that for 1 million people, there are not enough roads, and even if we reduced it to 50,000 people, people would start to get crowded.
Usually, when users wanted to scale their spatial simulations, they had to balance simulation accuracy with hardware capabilities, limiting the usefulness of being able to learn. AWS SimSpace Weaver relieves users of the stress of managing simulation infrastructure, simplifying how large-scale simulations are operated and freeing them up to focus on producing distinctive content and broadening access to simulation creation.
AWS SimSpace Weaver can also access popular development engines Unreal Engine 5 and Unity through plugins. It seems likely to become as attractive to developers as they want to use it.
Starting today, it is available in US East, US West, Asia Pacific, and Europe AWS Regions. There are no license fees, and pricing is determined by the number of instances developers integrate into their simulations.
