DCC Projects

B-Vehicle Trainer / Simulator

Data Communication and Control (Pvt) Ltd.

Product Overview
B-Vehicle is a product comprising of different engineering technologies integrated together to make a simulator for special military vehicles.
The different domains used in this product are

Software Engineering
Mechanical Engineering
Electronic Engineering
3D Graphics

BVTS (B-Vehicle Training Simulator) consists of 16 trainee stations that are connected to 1 instructor console through network sending and receiving real-time data for it's operation.
Each of the Trainee console contains steering wheel, gear system pedals and dashboard that are perfectly compatible with our graphics system and operate on real-time bases having a delay of less then 1 m s.

Although this product is being designed for special military vehicles (called B-Vehicles), it has the capability to be configured for other normal day vehicles like a sedan, truck, jeep and sports cars. Having fully functional and real-time physics the driver when driving a jeep feels the difference from a truck and/or a sedan.

The simulator is capable of generating scenarios to train the driver control the vehicle in dangerous situations like slippery roads due to heavy rain, heavy snow, sudden animals crossing the road, sudden pedestrians crossing the road, abnormal traffic, accident occurring in front of vehicle, very low visibility at night times, heavy fog and etc.

The software system alone is the integration of different technologies for example the 3D-Graphics engine is made in pure C++ using directX 9 giving the 3D-engine maximum power over processor and memory usage, on the other hand the instructor console is developed using C# and .net technologies for good looking user interfaces and software system in minimum amount of time and efforts (plus giving the advantage of easy updates and system maintenance)

Mechanical Design
The console shown on the right side of the screen is a prototype and is not yet finalized. However it portrays the basic design we intend to use.

Future up gradation intended in design will be as under

The LCD Screen will be concealed in metal frame
A dashboard of some vehicle will be fitted to top of gauges
Finishing paint touches

3D Graphics Engine
The 3D-Graphics Engine is the cream of this simulator. Combining the power of latest vertex and pixel shaders of directX 9c (using c++) along with the real-time physics, we were able to create extraordinary visual effects with features as under.

Real-time shadows for each object of the game using stencil buffers
Per pixel based unified lighting
Particle effects and billboards for dust clouds and smoke
Real-time vehicle dynamics
Real-time visibility changes for fog, mist and haze effects
Unique collision sounds for every object
Support for multiple types of vehicles
Dynamic lighting for day/night time effects
Character Animation
Force Feedback on the steering wheel for off-road driving
Environment mapping for real-time reflections on car body and glass
Multiple types of reflections (glass, metal, polished wood, polished floor and glass towers)
Real-time network communication engine
Sending the errors performed by driver to the instructor console for data logging
Real-time data acquisition from electronics hardware
Multi-texture and multi-pass blending for various effects
Mipmap technique used to optimize performance
Dynamic loading and un-loading of scene geometry to optimize memory and processor load (Scene Management)
Quick and intelligent loading of scenarios keeping optimized memory usage and processor load

Features still to be added

Intelligent traffic support
Fully functional traffic signals
Intelligent pedestrians

Instructor Console
Instructor console has the power to control all the trainee stations or any one of them at a time. Instructor has the advantage of viewing what the trainee is seeing on his screen by selecting any one of the stations at a time. In addition to this the Instructor Console has the following real-time features

Database support: Adding, editing or deleting the trainees records
Data logging: keeping a record of all actions performed by the trainee
Load same or different scenarios on all or any one station at a time
Control different vehicle parameters (battery low, Oil low, Fuel, Engine temperature)
Generate emergency situations: Sudden brake fail, accidents, sudden animal crossing the road, explosions etc.
Change time of the day: Day or Night
Change environment conditions: Clear weather, Rain, Snow, Low visibility, Fog, Haze, Mist etc.
Emergency creation of game objects
Real-time display of different vehicle statistics on screen (speed, rpm, battery, oil status, fuel, engine temperature, milometer etc)
Error reporting and analysis after the exercise

The software of instructor console is being made using C# and the .net technologies giving my team of developers the facility to create cool user interfaces and stable system in the least amount of time and effort.

3D Modeling
My team of 3D modelers and artists have been working very hard to create a library of 3d models and art work including different textures and stuff since the last few months. The result of this effort can be seen from above shown images, however all the models are not visible in them. During the last few months we have created a library of following

More then 28 different types of buildings
More then 22 types of advertisement billboards and signs
More then a dozen own vehicles
More then a dozen other vehicles
13 type of trees
Many types of traffic lights
More then 30 types of clutter (that’s benches, bus stops, signs, dumpers, drums and etc)

We have created more then 100 types of 3D models and more are being developed and tested every day.