Real-time Rendering of Volumetric Clouds on Commodity Hardware

Abstract

The goal of our method is to provide a maritime simulator with a system to model and render volumetric clouds in real-time. The fidelity must be sufficient so that a visual cue to changing weather conditions is given to the training staff. As with many other natural phenomena the inherent complexity of clouds makes them difficult to simulate on today’s hardware. Models on cloud forming and evolution are constantly being refined. Photons entering a cloud would often get scattered few dozen times before finally exiting it. We clearly can’t use a straightforward simulation of these meteorological and optical phenomena. The presented technique builds up on multiple previous methods. The technique must operate within the restrictions imposed by system into which it’s integrated, but it also takes into account future improvements. The data structures and algorithms are specifically designed to be suitable for parallel execution.