The virtual windtunnel-an environment for the exploration of three-dimensional unsteady flows

A recently completed implementation of a virtual environment for exploring numerically generated three-dimensional unsteady flowfields is described. A boom-mounted six-degree-of-freedom head-position-sensitive stereo CRT system is used for viewing. A hand-position-sensitive glove controller is used for injecting various tracers (e.g. smoke) into the virtual flowfield. A multiprocessor graphics workstation is used for computation and rendering. The techniques for visualizing unsteady flows are described, and the computer requirements for a variety of visualization techniques are discussed. These techniques generalize to visualization of other 3D vector fields