View and application dependent simplification of digital mock-ups

Abstract

The use of virtual prototypes during the industrial design process of advanced human machine interfaces, like aircraft cockpits, brings competitive advantages: the development of virtual prototypes is cheaper and faster than the development of physical prototypes; virtual prototypes support early ergonomics studies and layout analysis and can be easily enhanced all along the design and development processes. Nevertheless, the preparation of a virtual prototype is not so easy. In industry, digital mock-ups come from CAD/CAM environment, and thus, are highly detailed. The most important challenge is then to achieve interactivity while maintaining high visual quality and fidelity. Through the example of the Virtual Cockpit application, we present how to reduce and simplify the geometrical information of the database, in order to achieve a sufficient frame rate without degrading the geometrical visual quality. These simplifications are controlled by objective criteria based on human and application considerations.