Development of High-Resolution Virtual Terrain for Use in a Motion-Based Simulator with an Image Generator

Visual Simulation, training, and virtual prototyping platforms demand ever increasing fidelity. Visual cues such as specular highlights and distinguishable surface contour must be presented to offer a sense of realism in the environment. Use of the visual database for a "glass smooth" terrain database does not provide adequate high frequency queues in motion and haptic feedback subsystems. Realistic surface roughness characteristics must be captured and used throughout the simulation system. This proposal will demonstrate the feasibility of generating, integrating, and overlaying high-frequency roughness characteristics onto both the visual database and in the terrain database. The use of bump mapping and Phong illumination will be investigated as methods of increasing scene realism.