Multichannel CGI system based on PCs

Computer Generation Image (CGI) system is main part of the flight simulator. Usually, the Image Generation Workstation to be used in CGI system is very expensive. This paper presents a low cost CGI system based on PC and we use it to develop a flight simulator, which has a 3 channels display system with wide field-of-view (horizontal 240°× vertical 60°). First, the paper discusses the architectural principles of CGI system and provides a CGI system based on PC. Second, a type of 3 channels display system is described. The display system is designed in folded flat screen using rear project curtain. Adjacent screen shapes a 100° corner and each channel provides 80°×60° field-of-view. Furthermore, some key technologies, such as image connection, channels synchronization and channels communication, are discussed in detail. At the end of paper, a flight simulator with 3 channels visual scene is described and it is successfully implemented in training pilot. PC-Based CGI system also can be applied to a lot of fields including multimedia commerce, medical media databases visualization, CAD/CAM, scientific computing visualization, and entertainment.