Realistic and Fast Cloud Rendering
Niniane Wang · Journal of Graphics Tools · 2004
Clouds are an important aspect of rendering outdoor scenes. This paper describes a cloud system that extends texture splatting on particles to model a dozen cloud types (e.g., strat us, cumulus congest us, cumulonimbus), an improvement over earlier systems that modeled only one type of cumulus. We also achieve fast realtime rendering, even for scenes of dense overcast coverage, which was a limitation for previous systems. We present a new shading model that uses artist-driven controls rather than a programmatic approach to approximate lighting. This is suitable when fine-grained control over the look-and-feel is necessary, and artistic resources are available. We also introduce a way to simulate cloud form ation and dissipation using texture splatted particles.