SPECIAL EFFECTS FOR MARINE VISUAL SIMULATION

Marine simulators have historically used image generators designed for flight simulation. These systems do not provide the special effects required for marine simulation. The current generation of high-performance, low-cost graphics workstations, combined with commercial rendering software, provide the capacity to implement excellent image generation systems for marine applications as well as their special effects, but the software to create many of these special effects has not been developed. This project will analyze the requirements of marine simulators to develop a prioritized list of marine special visual effects, and develop and demonstrate a group of these effects. This work will serve as a prototype for a marine image generators.