A Driving Simulator Based on Video Game Technology

This paper presents the design and architecture of a mid-range driving simulator developed at the University of Skovde. The aim is to ¨ use the simulator as a platform for studies of serious games. The usage of video game technology and software has been a central design principle. The core of the simulator is a complete car surrounded by seven screens. Each screen is handled by a standard PC, typically used for computer games, and the projection on the screens is handled by budget LCD-projectors. The use of consumer electronics, standard game technology and limited motion feedback makes this simulator relatively inexpensive. In addition, the architecture is scalable and allows for using commercial video games in the simulator. Observations from a set of experiments conducted in the simulator are presented in this paper. In these experiments driving school students were instructed to freely explore a driving game specifically designed for the simulator platform. The result shows that the level of realism is sufficient and that the entertainment value was considered to be high. This opens the possibilities to employ and use driving simulators for a wider set of applications. Our current research focuses on its use with serious games for traffic education