About

This was my University Honours project – Investigating Multiple Weather Environments in Real-Time 3D Graphics. The final draft of my dissertation can be found in the download links below along with the project executable.

I choose this area as real-time 3D graphics is the field in which I am most interested and where my programming skills are most proficient. However, it was not due to the fact my skills are best placed in graphics that I was interested in weather in games, it was that weather in games is often overlooked as a dynamic game element. For example, rain collecting on a race track causing cars which drive through it to lose grip. Weather has become much more than a visual element; it has become an interactive and integral feature of the game as a whole. Grenades, rockets, golf balls, planes all being forced off course by wind, not just a constant wind vector applied to every object across a scene but dynamic wind which adjusts depending on the terrain around it. As wind in particular has an impact on so many features in the environment, developers who can enhance its presence in the game will subsequently achieve this highly desired life-like atmosphere.

Project Specification

This project will investigate modern techniques used in real time 3D applications for implementing realistic weather effects. Weather in real time 3D applications is becoming increasingly more realistic. In order to achieve this, increasing amounts of processing and memory are required. With this in mind, I will investigate different types of common weather conditions, including rain, wind and clouds. Rain comprises particles of water falling from the sky each with a direction, position and speed, which affect light and the appearance of objects. Wind has a direction and force and affects the movement of grass, trees and rain. Clouds cause the lighting in the scene to change depending on cloud coverage. These effects will be tested simultaneously using modern techniques to achieve a high visual quality at an acceptable frame rate.  A commonly accepted frame rate in games is 60fps, which means that one frame takes 16.666ms to render.  Therefore a percentage of this time would be designated to rendering the weather effects. The percentage of time allocated varies depending on how important the weather effects are in the game which will also have to model physics, non-player actors and perform a range of core operations. As a result it is important to minimise the processing cost of additional weather effects. Evaluation of how much processing time is taken and how much memory is used will be inspected using a profiler when optimizing code.

Brief

• Custom game engine (CNEngine)
• Dynamic wind using a pressure driven system with “shadow zones” – areas which are occluded from the wind by terrain.
• Dynamic rain with motion parallax, light scattering, water-air refraction, artist-directable variables for speed, density and direction.
• Dynamic procedurally generated clouds making use of dynamic lighting with light scattering, bloom effects and cloud illumination. Artist-directable variables for direction, speed, density and sharpness.
• Deferred shading system
• Shadows
• Hardware optimisations
• Dynamic lighting with day/night cycles and dynamic sky

Downloads

Investigating Multiple Weather Environments in Real-Time 3D Graphics (Honours Dissertation)

Binary Executable

About

An investigation for my simulation and visualization module in which I had to research and implement a working model for a mountain bikes suspension making use of the simple spring-mass-damper formula using Matlab and Simulink.

Documentation along with source for Matlab and Simulink can be downloaded below.

Paper Abstract

In this paper we discuss the problems posed by quantitative mathematical models of a physical system and their solution. The model in question is the design and control of the damping for the suspension of a mountain bike. The behaviour of such dynamic systems is best described using ordinary differential equations applying Laplace transform methods. We will discuss the spring-mass-damper system and observe its inputs and outputs in order to obtain relationships within its components and subsystems in the form of transfer functions. We will then demonstrate their behaviour using graphs and block diagrams for which we can graphically depict interconnections in a convenient way for designing and analysing control diagrams. We conclude by applying these methods to the real-life problem of the suspension of a mountain bike.

Downloads

 Damping Mass in Mountain Bike Suspension

MountainBike SMD Source (Matlab and Simulink)