Volumetric Procedural Clouds
I created a volumetric procedural clouds using the ray-marching technique.
Description
I developed a real-time volumetric cloud rendering solution using ray-marching technique for my BSc project inspired by the Guerrilla team’s proposal. While the visual results didn’t match their achievements, it’s a project I take great pride in, as it marked the beginning of my studies into shaders and proceduralism.
Settings:
- Density;
- Fluffly aspect;
- Height;
- Sparseness;
- Wind animation;
- Amount of rays casted for performance control.
Not implemented:
- Shadow projection over other objects;
- Optimizations proposed by Guerrilla’s team.
Ray-marching technique overview
The ray-marching solution involves casting rays through a volume and incrementally advancing them until a stopping condition is reached. The stop condition typically is when the ray has lost all its energy. The volume is described by various noises (e.g., Perlin and Worley noise), which when combined effectively describe clouds. A series of parameters define how to interpret this volume, allowing for the creation of clouds with different sizes and sparseness, as well as with more or less “fluffy” details. Other parameters also allow for the description of how light rays behave, generating denser clouds with different visual characteristics.
More details can be seen here.