Soft Edges and Burning Things: Enhanced Real-Time Rendering of Particle Systems

Abstract

This paper describes two methods that can be used to enhance the looks of particle systems. These methods t applications that use modern graphics hardware for rendering. The rst method removes clipping artifacts. These artifacts often appear when a fuzzy particle texture intersects solid geometry, resulting in a visible, undesireable edge in the rendered graphics. This problem can be overcome by softening the edges with proper shading algorithms. The second method of this paper presents the use of a ve-component color model. The parameters of the model are: red, green, blue, alpha and burn. The rst four color components have their usual meaning while the burn parameter is used to control the additivity of the color. This color model allows particles' alpha blending to range from pure additive (useful for rendering ames) to normal smoke-style rendering. This method can be implemented on most graphics hardware, even without shader support.