StRender

StRender is the runtime rendering software that enables real-time visualization of the simulated traffic environment in the driving simulator. It has a scalable design that allows rendering to one or more connected graphical displays by using several rendering units and defining their viewing direction and perspective. StRender is designed for integral use with the StTraffic simulation software and StControl simulation control unit. It receives real-time simulated traffic data from StTraffic and displays the cars and other dynamic data like traffic light states on the screen(s). State-of-the art rendering technology, based on the OpenSceneGraph rendering toolkit, enables real-time frame rates on standard PC hardware, e.g. demonstrated 60 fps for average complex city databases including 20 or more simulated cars. Ofcourse frame rate performances depend strongly on scene complexity and effective database organization.

Some key features of StRender:

• Runs on MS Windows™ and Linux environments.
• Runs on a standard off-the-shelf PC system, using an Nvidia™ graphics card.
• Allows a scalable display configuration by integrating one or more display screens side-by-side, each driven by its proprietary rendering PC. Enables building any driving simulator that ranges from low-end to a hight end driving simulator.
• Allows definition of separate additional viewports on the display screens, e.g. for mirror views or car-following top-views.
• Accurate positioning and smooth movements of traffic participants by time-extrapolating methods.
• Use of open source OpenScene Graph 3D graphics libraries for core rendering tasks. These enable the highest performance rendering available today and the use of multi-format databases.
• UDP and TCP protocols for data communication with the StTraffic simulation module and system control by the StControl module.
• Rendering of graphical databases generated by StRoadDesign.
• Includes standard real-time multi-LOD car models each in three different colors.
• Rendering of animated bicyclists.
• Extension with animated pedestrians in the near future.
• The renderers are configured by means of a resource file, which specifies geometry of windows, view ports, mirrors, view angle, etc. to setup the renderers.
• Also, functionality is included to present secondary tasks via the renderers, by presenting bitmapped images, controlled, like any other simulation feature, by scenario scripts.