A survey of cloud lighting and rendering techniques

Abstract

The rendering of participating media still forms a big challenge for computer graphics. This remark is particularly true for real-world clouds with their inhomogeneous density distributions, large range of spatial scales and different forms of appearance. We survey techniques for cloud visualization and classify them relative to the type of volume representation, lighting and rendering technique used. We also discuss global illumination techniques applicable to the generation of the optical effects observed in real-world cloud scenes.