DiRT – Dust in Real-Time

Marcos BagbyRyan RomeroBrett Sulprizio

Hiroko Uda

Team Members:

Dr. Sergiu DascaluBrian Westphal

Dr. Frederick HarrisJoseph Jaquish

Advisors:

CS 426 Senior Projects

Overview

• Project Description• Applications• Objectives• Development/Design• Challenges• Demo• Future Work• Questions/Comments

DiRT (Dust in Real-Time) is a…

3D dust visualization program

Main Objectives

• Simulate & Model Dust– Realistic– Real-time– Minimum number of resources– Multiple Methods

• Why this subject?– Initially planned for Desert Research

Institute’s (DRI) CAVE Project CAVE = (Computer Automated Virtual Environment)

Applications

• Military– Simulations

• enable realistic rehearsals of potential encounters and situations

• better understanding of combat environment leads to strategizing more effectively

• Video Games– Low resource gaming engines

• CAVE Project– Immersive virtual environment

CAVE (aka Cave Automatic Virtual Environment)

In practice, most Caves have three to four faces with projections. (Image from: Cruz-Neira, Sandin, DeFanti, Kenyon and Hart, 1992).

Specifications

• C++• OpenGL• QT for GUI• Flyable Model• Camera Control • Frame Rate Display

Development

• Three Planned Methods– Volumetric Fog

• Using OpenGL’s fog extensions to simulate

– Diffuse Reflection• Relying on light to create the effect

– Particle System• Generating individual particles (slower)• Freeform particle movement inside specified

region

Volumetric Fog

• Large affected area divided into small volumes

• Volumes will translate, morph, etc…– Will have different densities

• Translation and morphing specified by airflow parameters

• Stencil Buffer and Alpha Blending with multi-pass rendering creates the illusion

Design: System Architecture

«subsystem»GUI

«subsystem»Simulation

«subsystem»Terrain

«subsystem»Dust Methods

«subsystem»Model

Load TerrainTexture

Play Mode

Set All System Defaults

Load TerrainHeight Map

Load Speed Settings

Load Dust Render Settings

Load Control Settings

Open BrowseTerrain Dialog

Open Browse HeightMap Dialog

Toggle Control Modes

Adjust Speed Dial

Toggle Dust Method

User Chooses Quit

Challenges

• Camera– Had problems with controls & terrain

• Dust methods– References on methods vague– Harder than expected

• Model– Not too familiar with loaders, challenge

was integrating with our terrain

Demo

Future Work

• Diffuse Reflection and Particle System methods– Diffuse reflection probably most difficult to

implement– Particle system probably easiest to

implement, but very resource intensive• More advanced algorithms• Implement for CAVE use• Voxel Processing Method

Any Questions/Comments?