Software Simulation of Water Surface Optical Glitter

Areté Associates
1997–98

The clinic team investigated and developed models for the reflection of the sun off the ocean’s surface to create an improved ‚Äúglitter‚Äù routine for Arete Associates’ RenderWorld, their software package for modeling natural scenes. Current software techniques do not allow for efficient simulations of light reflection off small-scale water waves (referred to as glitter) because it is too computationally intensive. The team developed a software implementation of its recommended solution to Arete Associates. Images generated using the RenderWorld’s package will be shown.

Advisor(s): Gregory A. Lyzenga.