Modelling of Turbulent Water over Natural Terrain

Water phenomena are some of the most visually spectacular effects found in nature. This paper presents a novel efficient hybrid method to model turbulent water such as fast flowing rivers and waterfalls with the intent that the model can be used as part of a larger environment or scene. The model presented uses hydrostatic theory to incorporate a 2D height field and a particle system to model respectively the main volume and spray of turbulent water. The user is able to submit any environment formed from spheres and panels making the solution very flexible and adaptable. Our results show that the model provides a nearly realistic simulation of turbulent water and for simple scenes interactive speeds are possible which compares favourably with alternative techniques.