Computer Graphics Forum

Realistic real-time rendering of landscapes using billboard clouds

S. Behrendt, C. Colditz, O. Franzke, J. Kopf, O. Deussen

Material

Abstract

We present techniques for realistic real-time rendering of complex landscapes that consist of many highly detailed plant models. The plants are approximated by dynamically changing sets of billboards. Realistic illumination is approximated using spherical harmonics. Since even the rendering of simple billboard cloud plants is too time consuming, the landscape in the background is approximated with shell textures. The combination of these techniques allows us to render large scenes in real-time with varying illumination, which is interesting for computer games and interactive visualization in landscaping and architecture as well as modelling.

BibTeX

@article{Behrendt2005Realisticrealtime,
  author    = {S. Behrendt, C. Colditz, O. Franzke, J. Kopf, O. Deussen},
  doi       = {10.1111/j.1467-8659.2005.00876.x},
  issn      = {1467-8659},
  journal   = {Computer Graphics Forum},
  publisher = {The Eurographics Association and Blackwell Publishing, Inc},
  title     = {Realistic real-time rendering of landscapes using billboard clouds},
  url       = {http://graphics.uni-konstanz.de/publikationen/Behrendt2005Realisticrealtime},
  year      = {2005}
}