Evaluating evacuation simulation results in a virtual reality environment

Safety is considered as one of the key issues in ship design and operation, especially for passenger vessels. This motivates research applying advanced computer graphics technology for ship safety analysis. We have implemented a scenario allowing the evaluation of evacuation simulation results carried out for passenger vessels in a virtual reality (VR) environment. By combining available 2D simulation data with the 3D data of the ship, additional insights with respect to critical points such as stairways and narrow passage ways can be gained, which opens up the opportunity to early design improvements. One of the major technical challenges solved in this context, is the real time visualization of the fully outfitted ship. When reviewing the simulation within the virtual environment, the evaluator can navigate intuitively, using 2D-deck plans on a multi-touch device.