Advanced 3D visualization for simulation using game technology

3D visualization is becoming increasingly popular for discrete event simulation. However, the 3D visualization of many of the commercial off the shelf simulation packages is not up to date with the quickly developing area of computer graphics. In this paper we present an advanced 3D visualization tool, which uses game technology. The tool is especially fit for discrete event simulation, it is easily configurable, and it can be kept up to date with modern computer graphics techniques. The tool has been used in several container terminal simulation projects. From a survey under simulation experts and our experience with the visualization tool, we concluded that realism is important for some of the purposes of visualization, and the use of game technology can help to achieve this goal.