A Training Oriented Driving Simulator

Recent advances in Computer Graphics and Virtual Reality technology have brought us the powerful tools for the development of driving simulators. This paper describes the implementation of a driving simulator named Training Oriented Driving Simulator(TODS). This system is designed to meet the needs of rigorous driving training and examination.TODS consists of hardware system and software system. The hardware system is constituted of PC, display system and driving cab. The software system is developed based on a game engine called Lucid developed by the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. TODS is designed under the human-in-loop real-time simulation mode. We divide software system into 7 parts, including software architecture, car modeling, I/O interface, graphics rendering, system extension, judging system and scene authoring.The software architecture, integrating the subsystems and managing information and data transfer among subsystems, is the key component of TODS. In car modeling, the paper describes the implementation of convex mirror using the dynamic texture mapping. In order to deal with different type of I/O device, we create an abstract layer between I/O devices and virtual car. The graphics rendering system is based on Lucid and provides 120° horizontal FOV and realistic visual feedback to give the driver a realistic feeling of immersion similar to the feeling in a real moving vehicle. We also develop some extension, like profile system and GPU based image processing framework. Judging system can help the user find out their errors. TODS's scene model is designed and constructed according to the "Driving Test Specification" of China to meet the demands of rigorous driving training. And the modular construction method is used in the work of scene authoring in TODS.