The Virtual Car - Entering a New World Anyone visiting a Mercedes dealer in the near future to select colour schemes and appointments for their new cars will discover a new world. Rather than picking up a printed brochure, Mercedes buyers will in future enter a different reality - the world of Virtual Reality, generated by a high-performance computer. The computer will simulate the desired model so realistically that the customer can actually walk around it, as if it was a genuine car made of steel, rubber and plastics. The customer will also be able to climb into the car and study every detail feature in the interior from close up and from every angle, right down to seat upholstery seams. He or she can then vary colours and materials at will, add or remove equipment features within next to no time and create his or her dream car. People will quickly forget that they are dealing with a computer- generated three-dimensional illusion. An Idea becomes Reality Mercedes-Benz succeeded in developing this new sales-supporting system in record time. Less than a year passed from the first idea to the realization of the project. A completely new development is access to the virtual world by means of a screen and a software which composes the virtual image of reality out of some five million polygons. Access to the virtual world has been completely reconstructed via a computer screen and software which composes a virtual image of reality from some five million polygons. The technology, developed exclusively for Mercedes-Benz, permits free and easy access to the virtual world of Mercedes automobiles. It consists of a high-resolution, flat LCD color monitor that serves as your window to computerized reality. It is movable in any desired direction, forward or backward, left or right, up or down, and it can turn. It then shows the corresponding part of the simulated automobile.