Realistic atmospheric effects
By Miriam Doorn
Simulating the sky in real-time applications such as games and simulations is often done using static textures. With computational power increasing over the years, there is more and more an interest in creating visually convincing physics-based simulations of the sky. Especially for simulations used for training, realistic simulation of the sky in different weather conditions can be essential. Games and simulations tend to be very demanding applications. Therefore it is important that the simulation of the sky is done efficiently, without using too many resources.
Many models exist for various aspects (e.g. the sun, the moon, clouds) of modelling a sky. Atmospheric scattering is the model used to define a gradient on the sky. This model allows one to create the change in sky color from dusk till dawn on different altitudes and distances.
The goal of my research is to create an engine which designers can use to easily model the atmospheric effects they need for their virtual environments. Though I will start by implementing atmospheric scattering and clouds, the engine should be expandable to handle other atmospheric effects such as rain and lighting.