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Resource Database > Environmental Systems
Related information is also held in the following Categories:
3D Engines | Locomotion | Realistic Modelling | Direct X | Open GL | CG Passives
 
The environment that comprises the world, is far more complex than a first glance would say. Collisions, weather patterns, growing plant life, and rippling fur. Particles and growth. Complex systems abound in a living world.


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Movement and Collisions (2)

Locally Hosted resource
3D Physics SDK > PhysX
The PhysX SDK and related hardware acceleration is designed as a method for realtime physics calculations, rather than expecting every developer to code from scratch.

Locally Hosted resource
Convex Hull Simplification With Containment By Successive Plane Removal
A fairly short overview of an interesting, and immensely handy simplification method, with the potential to reduce the number of calculations needed in a scene.



Atmospherics (7)

Atmospheric systems – weather –are about the most complex and numerous class of environmental systems. Gentle rain, howling winds, torrential downpours, gentle morning mists, and idyllic sunsets. Roiling clouds, snow flurries, sleet, and dappled sunlight filtering through the branches. All are just apart of atmospherics.
Applicable Dictionary Entries:  
Grunge Map
Locally Hosted resource
Analysing Typhoons for Future Use
NASA has unveiled a weather satellite capable of converting any typhoon into a 3D volumetric map in unprecedented detail, in real-time. These maps being extremely useful for both dedicated weather simulators and interactive 3D environments alike.

Locally Hosted resource
Creating Raging Winds in AW 4.1
This tutorial is intended to take you through the process of creating fairly realistic, windy weather in ActiveWorlds 4.1.

Linked resource
Hemisphere Lighting With Radiosity Maps
Rendering of lighting in outdoor scenes is a paramount concern. To truly be realistic, the light levels constantly vary, and the sun (or suns) are not usually even the primary lightsource! All that adds up to is a computational disaster, unless some way is found to render lightsoure data quickly, and easilly....

Locally Hosted resource
Realistic Supernovas thanks to Simulation Runs
It is always pleasant when a research simulation unveils data that can be used in all sorts of other simulations – in addition to it's expected result. A new simulation on the formation of stellar novas, and the shapes they take, has provided just that.

Linked resource
Render Smoke And Fog Without Being A Computation Hog
Computer scientists from UC San Diego have developed a way to generate images like smoke-filled bars, foggy alleys and smog-choked cityscapes without the computational drag and slow speed of previous computer graphics methods.

Locally Hosted resource
Solar Landscapes Captured & Available
NASA's STEREO probes have reached their optimal positions. The purpose? To create a continually changing, real-time map of the spherical star, more than detailed enough to use for terrain.



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Water (3)

Water is one of the hardest things to recreate virtually. It is an incredibly dynamic substance. A liquid constantly flowing, rippling, responsive to change. Sometimes clear, holding particles in suspension, cascading over containers, freezing, heating, cascading down as rain.
Linked resource
Deep-Water Animation and Rendering
An extremely long, and exhaustive article, covering just about everything you need to know to produce very realistic bodies of water.

Linked resource
Inexpensive Underwater Caustics Using Cg
A look at creating aesthetically pleasing, realistic water movements, using caustics - for ultra-realism for low processing power.

Locally Hosted resource
Simulating the Connection Between Fluid Droplets and a Solid Surface
German researchers develop a simulation that approaches fluid dynamics from a new angle. Considering the makeup of the solid structures the droplets hit, as every bit as important as the physics of the droplet itself.



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Fire (1)

From the ‘simple’ flame to great explosions, fire is a very computationally expensive phenomenon to simulate, and we are only just on the cusp of perfecting it.
Linked resource
GPUs: the next frontier in film
Technology and movie-making have always gone hand in hand but the latest breakthroughs are changing the very nature of the process. Those in the industry say that thanks to the role of graphics processing units (GPUs), the director's vision can be more fully realized.



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Particle Swarms (0)

Many, if not all environmental systems, can be recreated perfectly with a particle swarm, or swarms following certain rules.


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Lighting (6)

Lighting is one of those things you never notice when it is working correctly. When it is not, it is something you notice all too much.
Applicable Dictionary Entries:  
Ambient Occlusion MapDark Mapping
Light Mapping
Linked resource
Hemisphere Lighting With Radiosity Maps
Rendering of lighting in outdoor scenes is a paramount concern. To truly be realistic, the light levels constantly vary, and the sun (or suns) are not usually even the primary lightsource! All that adds up to is a computational disaster, unless some way is found to render lightsoure data quickly, and easilly....

Linked resource
Soft-Edged Shadows
A coder?s article about creating realistic, dynamic soft shadow in real-time interactive, and complex scenes.

Linked resource
Volumetric Rendering in Realtime
A brief but thorough multi-part article from Gamasutra, on creating volumetric rendering in real-time, for use in fog, fluid, and other effects, which correctly affect light at any point through them.