ABSTRACT
The simulation of the visual scene that presents itself through the window of an aircraft has been one of the most significant technical challenges in the development of flight simulation technology. It is, in fact, one of the elements of flight simulators that did not begin to see to major progress until the 1980s and the onset of rapid growth in computer processing power. Prior to that decade, highly detailed visual scene simulation was largely delivered by the scanning of cameras over detailed terrain models.1 Early attempts at scene simulation by computergeneration resulted in sparsely detailed images, which were of very low resolution. In the decades since the explosive growth of computer technology began, the ability to display real-time imagery over a large field-of-view (FOV) has become commonplace in modern flight simulators. This chapter explores the technology of visual scene simulation and its role in flight simulation as well problems in the design and implementation of the technology.
