A Modeling Algorithm for Realistic Water Surface Simulation in Virtual Environment

A new modeling algorithm to simulate realistic water surface is presented Perlin noise is introduced as the stimulator of the water height field, and with the smoothness characteristic of the noise, continuously dynamic water effect is obtained To avoid noise calculation for every water vertex, B spline surface is introduced to construct water surface The noise is applied to the control point of the B spline surface in order to control the water height field indirectly, so the water surface can be divided in high resolution without more noise calculation The construction speed of B spline surface is guaranteed by acceleration function of the graphic hardware View independent Cube Map texture mapping technology is used to simulate reflection of water, and refraction effect is achieved by tracing the refraction vector of the view vector It turns out that the modeling algorithm can satisfy the requirements of real time simulation of realistic water surface on generic PC platform