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Practical Completion on First Unigine 2 Rail Project for Oktal Sydac

  • New Zealand’s rail network operator, Greater Wellington Rail, runs the Wellington region’s passenger network, which is made up of five lines. This region has the highest per capita use of public transport in New Zealand, with rail making up a large portion of that usage.

    In March 2017, after a successful bid, Oktal Sydac signed the contract to provide Greater Wellington Rail with a driver training simulator and 155km of Wellington track CGI. This project gave us the perfect opportunity to utilise some new technology and deliver-up a host of firsts!  This was our first Unigine 2 project – a state-of-the-art, real-time 3D engine used in simulation, visualization and VR systems. It was also our first project utilising global water with waves, which change depending on the weather settings. A new track generation tool was created that enabled faster generation and the automatic creation of more complex intersections.

    Lastly, this was the first project to include dynamic station lighting, resulting in a much more realistic effect.

    Amazingly true-to-life water and wave movement.


    Practical completion of this project was announced internally by Project Manager Brenton Nankivell on the 9th of November: Barry Fryer, Acting Rail Manager of Rail Operations for Greater Wellington Rail, was delighted with the outcome.

    We are very pleased with the realism and functionality offered by the newly built Matangi train driver simulator.” Said Barry. “[Oktal] Sydac have done a terrific job of working closely with our engineers and train drivers to design and deliver a training simulator that replicates our train, our network and our unique operating environment. Our brief included some unusual requirements such as earthquakes and landslips in addition to Wellington’s wild weather, all of which were no problem for [Oktal] Sydac.

    Visitors to the simulator always comment on the photorealistic virtual world as well as the near perfect cab replication. Our engineers have compared the simulator train performance to real world data and proven it to be almost identical.

    It has been a real highlight to work with Brenton and the
    [Oktal] Sydac team on this project and we would certainly recommend them to other potential customers.”

    If you would like to learn more about how Oktal Sydac can enhance your driver training regime, please contact us via our website.