Aggregation, disaggregation, and the challenge of crossing levels of resolution when designing and connecting models

Virtual reality will sometimes require consistent simulated information at different levels of resolution. It will also require connecting models coherently that were designed independently. Basic concepts of variable-resolution modeling (VRM) are introduced, and a design approach involving hierarchical model processes and objects is described. Even in attempting to connect existing models, this approach can clarify the ideal, after which one can make integrated model adaptations rather than fixing connection problems sequentially. Experiments to improve the methods used in developing phenomenologically subtle variable-resolution models are described. How a mathematical analysis shed considerable light on a long-standing debate within the military modeling community is also described. An experiment with cross-organizational model comparisons that revealed subtle aggregation problems and may have been a prototype for what should be routine open discussion of models in circumstances where results can be reproduced or contradicted is discussed