Effect of Visual Display Parameters on Driving Performance in a Virtual Environments Driving Simulator

Abstract

In virtual environment applications, there is a tradeoff between the quality of the graphic image and the speed at which the application runs. In driving simulation, the content and quality of the visual image are particularly important, which suggests that there are limits to the degree they can be reduced. A virtual environments driving simulator was used to investigate the effects of visual display parameters on driver performance and perception. A road tracking study compared two display devices, two rendering algorithms, and three levels of road side delineation poles. Subjects drove the simulator through a series of road courses, and answered questionnaires designed to evaluate their perception of the realism of the simulator and the sense of immersion in the virtual environment. The results of the study confirm previous work on the beneficial effects of road side delineation poles on driving performance. They also suggest the importance of lag in the perception of driving performance and immersion, and the importance of shaded images in actual driving task performance.