Real-Time Realistic Illumination and Rendering of Cumulus Clouds

Realistic simulation of natural phenomena such as clouds is one of the most challenging problems facing computer graphics. The complexity of cloud formation, dynamics and light interaction makes real time cloud rendering a difficult task. In addition, traditional computer graphics methods involve high amounts of memory and computing resources, which currently limits their realism and speed. We propose an efficient and computationally inexpensive phenomenological approach for modelling and rendering cumulus clouds, by drawing on several approaches that we combine and extend. This paper focuses on the modelling of the cloud's shape, rendering and sky model but is does not deal with the animation of the cloud.