A method for simulating the effects of the optical quality of windshield onto the image recording quality of a digital image recording device, in particular a digital image recording device for an advanced or automated driver-assistance system. The method is based on a combination of an adapted stochastic ray tracing method and of a convolutional image processing to simulate the effects of the optical distortions of a windshield on the image recording quality of a digital image recording device. The simulation is performed from a measured optical quality function of the windshields related to those optical distortions.