Application of Terrain Data Management in Driving Simulator

Fidelity of vehicle dynamics is directly affected by virtual terrain data in driving simulator, in order to satisfy both high fidelity and simulation frame rate, management of high resolution terrain data is necessary. Vehicle dynamics process and terrain data triangle grid structure are introduced firstly, then a data management algorithm is described, whole terrain data is divided into small terrain blocks identified by their row and column, according to driver’s view range, blocks around vehicle position are loaded rather than all terrain data, therefore dynamics calculation efficiency and simulation frame rate are improved. Finally, a simple driving simulator is created to test effect of this algorithm, the results show it is feasible and valid for driving simulator.