The dynamic range of modern day display systems have greatly improved over the past few years. However, they are still not capable of displaying the full intensity range that the human eye is capable of perceiving. The computational power of Graphical Processing Units (GPUs) that are incorporated into modern day Image Generators (IGs) have greatly improved over the past few years, particularly when operating on floating point values. Rendering the entire scene as accurate in-band radiance values enables sophisticated processing to be applied that can help compensate for the limited dynamic range of modern day display systems. The resulting realism can significantly improve training when high contrast scene content is present. Examples include landing on an aircraft carrier that is steaming into the sunset and spotting an entity that is in the direction of the sun. Furthermore, rendering light points using in-band radiance values improves training by providing pilots with realistic visual representations that can take the display’s limited dynamic range into account. This can be critical to training when displaying navigational, runway, and anti-collision lights is required. This paper shows results from a new experimental IG that incorporates both accurately rendering the scene using floating point radiance values as-well-as post processing the resulting values to compensate for the dynamic range of the display system. This processing is accomplished by mimicking various aspects of the Human Vision System while still maintaining the commonly required 60 Hz update rate.
Simulating Realistic Light Levels in Next Generation Image Generators
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