Frederic W. Erk is scenario designer and consultant to military computer simulation. His professional expertise also comprises librarian & archival research, digital assets creation & management on PC and Mac platforms, as well as translation of technical military reference for the German, English & French professional. Consultancy clients include French Armour School CDEB documentation centre. Frederic initiated CDEB Intranet project and directed it until 2001. Frederic also spent six years designing Panzer Commander 2, a realistic World War II tank combat simulation. He lives today in Western France, in the very vicinity of Saumur Museum.
His other life-time passion is nature and forestry. He is dedicating much time and energy to converting local pastures and farmland to forests hosting native oak tree population and sheltering numerous local animal species. Since 1989 he has planted more than 19,000 oaks, thus participating to the future of our planet in an ecologically sound environment. Nature is an inspiration source as everything man developed, including for warfare, is derived from it.
IHSD is the Institute for Historical Scenario Design, which has been created by Frederic Erk to the purpose of developing and supporting the development of realistic scenarios for military combat simulations focusing on armoured warfare. IHSD database includes rare technical & historical archives and exclusive digital photographs and video footage of armoured vehicles. Audio digital records feature Saumur vintage tank engines like Renault R35, B1bis, German Panther and Tiger II, Russian T-34 and many more yet.
Panzer Commander 2 is a World War II tank combat simulation project. The objective is to build a realistic simulation based on historical and technical accuracy. In 1999 SSI granted to Frederic Erk the exclusive access to the source code of their popular Panzer Commander software. IHSD was to be responsible for research and development, while the project remained under the direction of Frederic. In 2003 code development was suspended due to growing research delays, team management difficulties, financial shortcomings, and code compatibility issues with latest Microsoft Windows operating systems. Solutions are actively explored, including the opening of source code to a community of volunteers and developing the software for alternative operating systems like Linux or Mac OS X.
