Realistic and Fast Cloud Rendering

Clouds are an important aspect of rendering outdoor scenes. This paper describes a cloud system that extends texture splatting on particles to model a dozen cloud types (e.g., stratus, cumulus congestus, cumulonimbus), an improvement over earlier systems that modeled only one type of cumulus. We also achieve fast real-time rendering, even for scenes of dense overcast coverage, which was a limitation for previous systems. We present a new shading model that uses artist-driven controls rather than a programmatic approach to approximate lighting. This is suitable when fine-grained control over the look-and-feel is necessary, and artistic resources are available. We also introduce a way to simulate cloud formation and dissipation using texture