C.G.I.-Surface textures

Abstract

Abstract A visual display system of the computer generated image type, for a ground based flight-simulator having a rectangular raster-scanned display 101 and having a surface detail information store for providing a visual display of textured surfaces in perspective during simulated flight. The system includes a surface detail generator comprising a perspective transformation computer 108 and a surface detail store 111. The perspective transformation computer is organised as a "pipeline" to compute in real time the perspective transformation from the textured surface (ground) plane to the display plane. Scanning of the surface detail store is controlled in a manner comparable with a trapezium scan of a photographic image, for the purpose of the perspective transformation i.e. surface sampling points xp, yp are calculated using equations which take into account A/C and observer displacement and attitude, relative to a surface origin (Xo Yo, H), and the position in the raster of the display scanning spot. The surface-detail memory consists of a hierarchy of texture stores. <IMAGE>

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