Do those simulations need to be real time and massively multiplayer?

I don't see the need for this tech in the high fidelity city simulation cited in the linked article: that would much easier to implement as an offline simulation.

Training seems like the most likely usage: eg. disaster response or large scale military scenarios.

I have to agree with the earlier poster that tech is not the limiting factor for massively multiplayer games.

No the simulations don't have to be real time or massively multiplayer. A simulation has no players at all so I'm not sure how it could be massively multiplayer.

It would most likely be used to test infrastructure or policy decisions. For example, what happens to your traffic in your city if you add this bus route, or how would a contagious bioweapon spread under certain conditions.

If you don't need real time then why use improbable?

If you want to simulate a new bus route then run an offline simulation using whatever tools you like with as much complexity as you like.

In fact you'd likely want to run your simulation much faster than real time to answer specific questions quickly, like finding traffic or passenger hotspots.

I doubt you'd want to sit there watching virtual buses driving around a 3d city, but rather quickly see heat maps change as you play with parameters.

It might be easier to set up a massive simulation in SpatialOS? And perhaps it's not limited to realtime.