Abstract

One of the largest areas of research in computer graphics deals with natural phenomena. In almost every computer game, animated film and physics application one might see it simulated in one or more forms. This paper aims to educate the reader on different facets of nature that need to be taken into account and tries to summarise recent developments concerning each aspect. These facets include water, rain, clouds and mirages amongst others.

Introduction

In the dawn of computer graphics, little attention was truly given to nature as it was truly too complex to be simulated on any machine. Nature is merely too multi-dimensional for us to fully grasp whereas manmade objects were built with machines and can therefore be drawn with machines. But as our understanding of nature and the computing power available to us grows, we start to find ways of simulating the vastness and perfect chaos of nature. All this is achieved through the use of models which simplify nature. When using these models it is important to remember that the only constraint that we place on the model is it should seem real. The intricacies of nature are manifested in various places like fire, illumination, water, weather and wind. This paper will not be dealing with fire or wind as the prior is a vast topic on its own and the latter cannot truly be rendered per se. The structure of the paper is as follows: in Section 2 we discuss trees. Section 3 looks at water and the way it acts. Thereafter the basis will be set for us to consider weather effects, the subject of Section 4, followed by atmospheric phenomena in Section 5. Finally we make conclusions in Section 6 and consider future efforts.

Trees