Complex water effects at interactive frame rates

Abstract

Due to the complexity of the effects, it is difficult to achieve photorealism and physically correct motion in interactive 3-D water simulations. We present a simulation and visualization method which goes a long way towards physical reality, e. g. by producing Kelvin ship waves and displaying images of real caustics on the water surface. Using efficient approximations and employing the specialized 3-D and CPU features of modern PCs, this simulation runs at rates of several frames per second. Part of this solution is the emulation of a hardware accumulation buffer on consumer 3-D graphics cards with the help of texture shaders.