Creating 3-dimensional car models in clay is so yesterday. Jaguar-Land Rover's new center uses hi-def virtual reality that’s four times sharper than your HDTV.

Jaguar-Land Rover (JLR) announced the opening of its new industry-leading 'Virtual Reality Centre' at the Design and Engineering Centre in Gaydon, Warwickshire.

Calling it “a different level of engineering,” Brian Waterfield, JLR Principal Engineer & Virtual Reality Centre Manager, boasts that "Jaguar-Land Rover has taken another giant step forward in its thrust for technological advancement; enhancing its design and engineering process to enable quicker, more robust decision making."

With this new state-of-the-art design facility, engineers and designers are able to see and interact with life-size, three-dimensional models of vehicles and components, completely eliminating the need for physical prototypes (traditionally carved out of clay).

Working in partnership with Sony, Sun Microsystems and ICIDO and Midlands-based HoloVis International Ltd, the JLR team was able to bring together all of the different components of the project to design, manufacture, install and support this next-generation virtual environment at a cost of around 2 million pounds. The system will dramatically increase the speed and efficiency of bringing new prototypes to the marketplace, a competitive advantage bordering on priceless.

So how does it work? Eight Sony SRX-S105 ultra-high resolution projectors – each capable of delivering the world's highest resolution imagery – produce photo quality interactive 3D imagery where pixilation on the rear-projection screens is almost impossible to see. The user wears 3-D glasses to experience 'ultimate realism' with an ultra-high resolution that is four-times the definition of full-High Definition TV. The user’s head and hands are driven by advanced virtual reality software with a visual quality that clearly outstrips existing industry virtual reality Walls and CAVES. This total immersion provides a virtual reality environment like no other for simulating vehicle exteriors and interiors and capable of making bodywork appear solid or transparent, all at a resolution that is near photo-realistic.

Design, ergonomics, engineering pro’s and con’s, can all be identified, evaluated and modified on the spot. All JLR adds is imagination.