An Investigation of Snow Effects to Enhance the Graphics in Computer Games

This project investigates how feasible it is to model and render snow in a three-dimensional environment, which could be added to a computer game to enhance its graphics. Falling snow and its collection are designed using particle systems, collision detection and surface modelling. We implement falling snow that appears relatively realistic using OpenGL and a particle system API. The feasibility of adding snow to a computer game is measured by testing the effect adding snow to a three-dimensional environment has on the frame rate. We show that it is possible to add falling snow to a computer game. However, we are not able to implement the collecting of snow so that it appears realistic, and therefore do not test whether is can be feasibly added to a computer game.