In response to yesterday’s post about my return to Second Life, reader Deep Semaphore pointed me toward Play2Train, a simulation of various emergency scenarios done in Second Life, developed under the guidance of the Idaho Bioterrorism Awareness and Preparedness Program.

From their site:

Play2Train is a virtual training space in SecondLife designed to support Strategic National Stockpile (SNS), Simple Triage Rapid Transportation (START), Risk Communication and Incident Command System (ICS) Training. This virtual environment spreads over two islands Asterix and Obelix (65536 x 2 sq. meters), with one island dedicated to a virtual town and the other a virtual hospital. The design of this virtual environment is influenced by dioramas frequently used by emergency services to support their tabletop exercises. A diorama is a partially three dimensional full-size replica or scale model of a landscape typically showing historical events, nature scenes, cityscapes, etc. for purposes of education or entertainment, source: wikipedia. Play2Train will provide opportunities for training through interactive role playing and will be the foundation for our emergency preparedness educational machinima.

This is utterly incredible stuff, a fantastic amount of work went into this. Check out the site for some amazing vdeos of their simulation in action.