Modeling and rendering of convective cumulus clouds for real-time graphics purposes

Abstract

The paper presents a simulation and rendering model of three dimensional covective cloud evolution. The model is physically based, however its purpose is graphical. The main stress is put on balancing two parts of a model: the atmsphere simulation with convective motion of air and water vapor combined with rendering of semi-transparent and light-scattering clouds, in order to achieve realistic animation in real-time. We examine and compare two algorithmic approaches based on CPU and GPU computations.