Realistic vehicle driving simulator with dynamic terrain deformation

Driving simulators are booming in recent years for vehicle system development, human factor study, and training of driving skills. In this paper, a new type of driving simulator is introduced with four Liquid Crystal Displays (LCDs) placed at the corresponding widows position in the driving cab, instead of using commonly front or rear multiple projector for the projection solution. In such a system, the driver sits in the driving cab and drives the vehicle facing the computer generated graphic images on the LCDs just as if looking through the real window. To enhance the visual effect of the simulation, dynamic terrain base on Real-time Optimally Adapting Mesh (ROAM) algorithm is involved to produce the realistic terrain deformation during the vehicle tire-soil interaction. Considering the terrain mesh in tire-soil interacting fields need a more detail level than that of untouched region and the precise location where deformation takes place in not known until run time, a dynamic resolution for touched area is used to extend the hierarchy of terrain mesh as the terrain deformation takes place. The software of the simulator is designed using open source game engine-Delta3D, which support the most advanced feature of the latest graphics hardware and shader technology, and lack of proprietary vendor lock-in and licensing fees at the same time.