Impacts of Approximate Modeling on Simulation Results

Steffen Ragnow*, Andreas Bielawny

Synopsys Inc.; Paderborn, Germany

*Contact email address: steffen.ragnow@synopsys.com

Abstract — Exact simulation methods of complex lighting systems, for example automotive head lamps and tail lamps, need a lot of time to calculate the light distribution or to generate photorealistic simulation results. This paper presents different simulation methods, possibilities to reduce time of simulation as well as effects on and limits of simulation results. The user must be clear which parameters are available in order to find an optimum between computation time and accuracy of simulation results.

Balancing simulation speed and precision is a matter of the question that the results are supposed to answer as well as certain aspects of software or even hardware options. Hardware could provide remarkable speed increase. However, software methods offer a variety of balancing options. Also the matter of precision in approximated surfaces modeling methods for simulation is being addressed within the scope of this paper.

Keywords: Computer Aided Lighting, Head Lamp Design, Tail Lamp Design, Ray Trace, Light Distribution, Photorealistic Simulation