GPU Rainfall

Pierre Rousseau, Vincent Jolivet, and Djamchid Ghazanfarpour

This paper appears in issue Volume 13, Number 4.
An electronic version of this article is available.

Abstract

Outdoor video games can improve their realism through weather effects simulation. However, simulating rain can yield many problems. We present solutions to address these problems and describe a complete framework to simulate rainfall in a video game. Rendering uses shaders to refract the scene inside the raindrops, based on optical properties. Retinal persistence is also considered. Animation is entirely conducted on graphics hardware, taking into account collisions and wind advection. An interface is presented, which allows the creation of complex wind fields by the user. Videos and shaders are available online.

Author Information

Pierre Rousseau

Vincent Jolivet

Djamchid Ghazanfarpour

Video

Video: Day scene

Video

Video: Night scene

Additional Materials

Shaders

Additional Materials

Masks

Additional Materials

Cn coefficients

BibTeX Entry

@article{RousseauEtAl08,
  author = "Pierre Rousseau and Vincent Jolivet and Djamchid Ghazanfarpour",
  title = "GPU Rainfall",
  journal = "journal of graphics, gpu, and game tools",
  volume = "13",
  number = "4",
  pages = "17-33",
  year = "2008",
}