Real-time multi-sensor synthetic environment created from a feature and terrain database using interacting and updatable abstract models

DETAILED DESCRIPTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a method for generating abstract models wherein a given set of source data is used to generate a plurality of different models.
It is another object to provide a method for generating a plurality of sub-models based on a single abstract model.
It is another object to provide a method for generating an abstract model which has all the attributes necessary to define its behavior with another other abstract model without intervention.
It is another object to provide a method for independently processing features and terrain data so as to maximize abstract model independence.
It is another object to provide a method for localizing a synthetic environment to thereby create regions of interest where a high level of detail can be developed for several purposes including, but not limited to 1) optimizing the step of feature-terrain interaction; 2) optimizing a final model result for subsequent rendering; 3) establishing a unit for incremental updating; and establishing an atomic unit for level-of-detail (LOD) selection.
It is another object to provide a method for merging feature and terrain abstract models to complete interaction therebetween.
It is another object to provide a method for generating a database in which only desired regions of interest are completely reconciled.
It is another object to provide a method for simultaneously processing a plurality of different models, regardless of whether or not they are based on a same data source.
It is another object to provide a method for not allowing feature-feature interaction and terrain-terrain interaction at any particular step before database reconciliation.
It is another object to provide a method for enabling object interaction without necessarily providing a set of external interaction rules for the objects.
It is another object to provide a method for creating a large database which is not economically stored in physical memory space.
These and other objects of the invention are realized in a method for creating a large-scale synthetic environment simulation which can be used in real-time