PC Based Direct X Windowed Engineering Graphics
D-Six
has always supported the deployment of external out-the-window graphics,
either through the use of the Primary Image family of PC based 3-D graphics
cards (i.e., P10, Piranha, Barracuda, etc,), or through the interface
with other external image generators such as SGI and Evans and Sutherland
graphics hardware. The limiting factor of these solutions was the expense
of the hardware and the integration complexity that restricted the use
of external graphics visualization.
Because of the explosion of PC based graphics hardware and capability, we wanted to move the ability to utilize this important visualization capability to any user that had a current 3-D graphics card installed. In 1999, the state of the art PC graphics cards had progressed to a
point that a $100 to $200 card could be expected to provide an acceptable level of external graphics capability at a minimum 30hz frame rate. Bihrle initiated a development program to access this capability, and as the graphics power has since accelerated, these low cost cards are poised
to provide an astounding level of capability.
What
the graphic capabilities of these cards has done is to allow D-Six to
offer as part of the basic environment, a windowed graphic interface
that essentially replaces the old icon based simulation view that came
up in the engineering screen. This new window is highly configurable
to allow the user to view the aircraft from numerous external views
as well as a pilot's out-the-window view.
The external views are dynamically configurable, with the Gods Eye view slewable from the keyboard or from a mapped hardware device. Configuration of the display window terrain, external view and other parameters are all handled through a tabbed graphical user interface. The airplane
external view models can also be dynamically loaded, and can have actions mapped to appropriate features of the model, such as moving surfaces, gear retraction, etc. The out-the-window view can be configured to use a number of supplied terrain configurations, or can be customized (more
on that later). The user can activate wing tip streamers for flight path visualization, and can opt to display the velocity vector on the external view as well. Many other dynamically configurable options are available as well.
The
beauty of this system is the efficiency of the graphics code and it's
performance on current hardware. Using Pentium II and III processors
in the 300 to 450mhz range, with a current 3-D card (not the top of
the line) we are getting a fixed 30 to 60hz frame rate in the windowed
graphic presentation, while running the simulation software
concurrently on the same platform. This includes the massive
F-18E/F simulation, with approximately 1.4 million tabular aero data
points and over 30,000 lines of FORTRAN code for the flight control
system alone. The effect of having the graphics and the simulation running
on the same platform in the same sim loop is virtually zero
graphics latency.
While
this windowed graphics presentation will be included as part of the
basic D-Six simulation environment, Bihrle is also completing the development
of a full screen graphics mode that will utilize the full monitor (or
projector) area for display of external graphics. This mode is actually
more efficient than the windowed mode, because the graphics no longer
has to keep track of the screen window configuration. This allows much
more complex graphics, such as importing National Geologic Survey Digital
Elevation Measurement (DEM) data for terrain, as well as adding other
graphics features (see figure above for an example of DEM terrain data
for the Luray, Virginia area).
Another feature that using Windows 98 as the operating system provides is a multi-monitor capability. Windows will support up to 9 graphics adapters, so we can give users a highly flexible graphics display capability. This expanded graphic capability will be available as an add-on
module to interested users.
Other Product Package Descriptions
