Previous research indicates two properties of real-world scenes are important to pilots for visual low-altitude flight: (a) vertical development mediated by presence or absence of hills and ridges, and (b) discrete objects exemplified by large objects or groups of objects. The present investigation sought to determine whether these scene properties can be represented with adequate perceptual fidelity in flight simulator visual scenes. The stimuli were sixteen computer-generated scenes exhibiting variation in both properties described above. Subjects rated the visual similarity of scenes with regard to properties useful for visual low-altitude flight. Ratings were analyzed using multidimensional scaling. A two-dimensional spatial configuration captured orderly variation in both scene properties. Unlike previous results using real-world scenes, discrete objects were relatively more important than vertical development in computer-generated scenes. Also, groups of trees were no more salient than randomly scattered trees in computer-generated scenes. Thus, properties important in real-world scenes can be effectively modeled in computer-generated scenes although some differences remain.
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