Real-Time Visualization of Dynamic Terrain in Off-Road Driving Simulation System

Dynamic terrain has become an increasingly important requirement for realistic ground-based simulation systems. In this paper, we give a view-dependent dynamic terrain visualization method using strip masks and implement our method in off-road driving simulation system. We partition our terrain into several blocks, and we pre-compute a set of strip masks of blocks. At run time, to render the terrain, we simply choose the mask of blocks that represent each part of the terrain to meet our desired visual fidelity. We simply remove the T-junction and cracks by rendering zero-area triangles along the render region boundaries. We also combine our algorithm with the physical model of ruts. We implement our method in off-road driving simulation system. The simulation system results prove our method is feasible and valid.