To present the results, obtained from the mathematical model of driving dynamics, the only effective way is the animation in virtual 3D environment. The vehicles and other objects involved in an animation have to be presented in way that they can be recognised from every point of view in every time frame of animation. This can be achieved by modelling each vehicle as its 3D geometrical model. The goal with this task is achieving balance between complexity of a vehicle model, which should be kept as low as possible to meet the requirements of real time animation, and its ressemblance to the real vehicle. Therefore the vehicles are modelled in a way that emphasizes their characteristic features while attempting to simplify the non-characteristic ones.
The base for modelling are photographs of vehicles from which 3D geometry is created by means of photomodelling software. This model is edited and converted to a format, suitable for use in animation, by means of conventional 3D CAD software.
VRML2 has been chosen as the final format of 3D vehicle models. VRML2 specification is publicly available and enables simple animation. An animation core has been made that enables view of the scene from different viewpoints (which includes the driver's view). To connect the mathematical model with the display in virtual 3D environment we have used ParallelGraphics Cortona SDK to develop a programme interface that automatically generates animations based on mathematical model output data.
VRMLPath enables direct comparison between animation and digital video of the measurement, which provides for qualitative analysis of the simulation results.
