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Why did SIMNET emphasize battlefield effects instead of exact physical realism?
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Early head-mounted display device developed by Ivan Sutherland at Harvard University, c. 1967.
The SIMNET (SIMulator NETworking) project emphasized battlefield effects over exact physical realism because its primary training objectives centered on command and control.1
By prioritizing operational and psychological aspects of battle, the system required only selective verisimilitude in its cabinet design and computer-generated imagery rather than total physical fidelity. This design choice allowed the military to focus on the social and tactical interactions between participants, which were deemed more relevant to collective training than the high-fidelity simulation of an individual station.1