Instrument clusters that display all information on a TFT-LCD
screen, also known as reconfigurable instrument clusters, have
become the new trend in automotive interiors. DENSO mass-produced
the world's first reconfigurable instrument cluster in 2008. To
satisfy customer requirements, large quantities of resources were
required. Coupled with an iterative process due to requirement
changes, development costs became very high. Reducing development
costs was vital in order to expand the reconfigurable instrument
cluster products line. One solution was to use existing human
machine interface (HMI) tools. However, most HMI tools are geared
toward software developers and not graphic artists. Furthermore,
each tool has its own unique method for image and scene creation,
creating an ineffective and sometimes difficult environment for
artists familiar with industry-leading computer graphics (CG)
software to learn and use the tools. As a result, the
artist-to-target workflow suffered from inefficiencies because
software developers had to remodel the artists designs created with
the CG software. Each time the design was changed, both artists and
developers had to reiterate the development process.
The instrument cluster is not only a primary source of
information to the driver, but also connects the driver to the rest
of the vehicle, establishing a somewhat personal relationship
between human and machine. It is imperative that the instrument
cluster design reflect clarity, precision and beauty. An
artist-centric approach was proposed to reduce the development
effort by introducing a data converter and real-time 3D rendering
engine. The goal was to achieve minimal loss in the development
cycle, from concept to production. The artist's idea, as
expressed with industry-leading CG software (Autodesk® 3ds Max®),
must be precisely replicated at the target level. The new proposed
workflow was as followed: First, an artist created a 3D model and
scene in 3D CG software. Next, the 3D model and scene were exported
and converted for use in the rendering engine. The converted data
included parameters and shader code for the rendering engine.
Finally, the data was run on the rendering engine. The rendering
engine called the appropriate OpenGL ES commands based on the
converted data from the artist and dynamic input data from the
developer's application code. With the new workflow, any
changes the artist makes are immediately and seamlessly applied to
the target.
It is important that the rendering engine interprets the
converted data on the embedded platform as close as possible to the
artist's intended design. Using automatic shader code
generation and frame rate improvement techniques contributed to
rendering a high quality image on a TFT-LCD screen. The data
converter was able to generate and optimize the shader code
automatically based on parameters set by the artist in the 3D CG
software.
The new workflow was evaluated during a mass production
development project and resulted in improved software development
efficiency. While DENSO has succeeded in automating graphics
development with data conversion and a rendering engine, the next
goal is to integrate a model-based development tool to improve
development efficiency.
