WSEAS Transactions on Computers
Print ISSN: 1109-2750, E-ISSN: 2224-2872
Volume 12, 2013
Realistic Simulation of 3D Cloud
Authors: Hang Qiu, Lei-Ting Chen, Guo-Ping Qiu, Hao Yang
Abstract: The digital creation of cloud is important for many applications in computer graphics, including outdoor simulations and the digital rendering of atmospheric effects. Unfortunately, it is still difficult to simulate realistic cloud with interactive frame rates due to its peculiar microstructures and complex physical process of formation. Realistic simulation of cloud turns to be one of the most challenging topics in computer graphics. In this paper, we present a method for simulating 3D cloud. The Coupled Map Lattice (CML) is adopted for the modeling of cloud, and the simulation of light scattering in clouds is achieved by using a series of spherical harmonics and spherical harmonic coefficients that represent incident-light distribution. A frequency domain volume-rendering algorithm combined with spherical harmonics is applied to implement fast rendering of cloud scenes. Experiments demonstrate that our method facilitates computing efficiency, while yielding realistic visual quality.
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Keywords: Natural Scene, Coupled Map Lattice (CML), Spherical Harmonics, Frequency Domain, Cloud Rendering, Volume Rendering