AWS recently released SimSpace Weaver, an option for running real-time spatial simulations across multiple EC2 instances. By distributing simulation workloads, the service can handle large real-world environments, crowd simulations, and immersive interactive experiences.

Organizations run simulations of situations that are rare, dangerous, or very expensive to test in the real world. For example, city managers can’t wait for a natural disaster to hit the city to test response systems. Event planners don’t want to wait for a major sporting event to start understanding the impact of games on traffic. Such scenarios should be simulated in a safe environment where planners can test different situations and adjust each system.

So far, spatial simulations have typically been limited to being run on a single piece of hardware. If developers wanted to simulate a larger and more complex world with many independent and dynamic objects, they needed to provide a larger computer. Simulation developers were forced to make tradeoffs between scale and fidelity, in other words, deciding how big the world was and how many independent entities there were.

When to use SimSpace Weaver
Using SimSpace Weaver happens when you need to increase the scale or complexity of simulations. SimSpace Weaver is great for simulating crowds. This is very useful, for example, when planning large events or building infrastructure such as a new stadium. It is also ideal for simulating smart cities complete with vehicles, residents and other objects.

AWS SimSpace Weaver allows external clients to be connected to simulations so that multiple users can interact and view simulations in real time.

SimSpace Weaver provides the infrastructure to weave a simulation across multiple instances, but is not a simulator. Build your simulations by integrating the AWS SimSpace Weaver C++ SDK with your code. Integrating with the SDK allows applications to interact with SimSpace Weaver software running in different instances. This allows SimSpace Weaver to track the global state of all your simulated objects and makes it easy to transfer objects between simulation applications. Developers building with Unreal Engine 5 or Unity can take advantage of SimSpace Weaver’s ready-made plugins to jumpstart their projects.

Developers are charged for the number of EC2 instances used for the duration of their simulation. The service currently supports up to ten sim.c5.24xlarge instances, with 17 application slots per instance, starting at $6.08 per instance per hour.

SimSpace Weaver is available in a subset of AWS regions, including Ohio, Northern Virginia, Ireland, Frankfurt, and Stockholm.