Forterra Systems has announced a strategic investment and technology advancement agreement with US intelligence venture capital organization In-Q-Tel to add more features to Forterra's OLIVE (On-Line Interactive Virtual Environment) software platform for virtual worlds.

Forterra's already demonstrated serious intentions for OLIVE -- quite literally, the Coventry Serious Games Institute most recently bought a license to use the platform for game-based learning. And prior to that, Forterra announced it had teamed with the Orlando-based Defense Department’s Joint Advanced Distributed Learning (JADL) Co-Laboratory to determine how MMO games might best be used in military counter-IED training.

So what are these new features? Firstly, OLIVE will be able to import Google's Sketchup 3D models (could this have to do with the nebulous rumor of a Google virtual world, since Google also has a close relationship with In-Q-Tel?). It will also add a network proxy that will allow the system to go through a greater range of firewall configurations, a 3-D conferencing and document sharing application; and additional 3-D content including scenery, avatars, buildings and other objects needed to support the new apps.

“Forterra has developed a technology platform and business model for virtual worlds that we believe is capable of supporting analytic transformation and the critical needs of the U.S. Intelligence Community as well as related applications in the private sector,” said Steve Bowsher, EVP of investments at In-Q-Tel. “Agreements like this with Forterra represent the best of public and private sector business models, designed to deliver innovative technologies to the U.S. Intelligence Community, linking them to new and emerging technologies in the commercial market and providing strategic incentives for companies like Forterra to develop and enhance technology solutions that benefit the federal government market as well as a broader commercial market.”

The amount of the investment was not disclosed.