GPU Simulation and Rendering of Volumetric Effects for Computer Games and Virtual Environments

As simulation and rendering capabilities continue to increase, volumetric effects like smoke, fire or explosions will be frequently encountered in computer games and virtual environments. In this paper, we present techniques for the visual simulation and rendering of such effects that keep up with the demands for frame rates imposed by such environments. This is achieved by leveraging functionality on recent graphics programming units (GPUs) in combinationwith a novel approach to model non physics-based, yet realistic variations in flow fields.We show how to use this mechanism for simulating effects as demonstrated in Figure 1. Physics-based simulation is performed on 2D proxy geometries, and simulation results are extruded to 3D using particle or texture based approaches. Our method allows the animator to model and to flexibly control the dynamic behavior of volumetric effects, and it can be used to create plausible animations of a variety of natural phenomena.