Atmospheric Scattering as a Post-Processed Effect

Introduction

Post-processing is a technique fundamental to graphics programming today. It allows for effects to be realised in great amounts of detail. This honours project will make use of this technique to demonstrate the potential it has to create visually stunning and accurate effects. This demonstration will be achieved by applying atmospheric scattering to a scene as a post-process to create very realistic skies.

Atmospheric scattering has been chosen as it is very realistic. It describes how incoming light from the sun is affected by the atmosphere to produce the stunning aura of colours observed daily. Another visual effect created with atmospheric scattering is that of haziness. This haze adds to the realism of the game environment and also gives the player much better depth cues.

Research Question

Atmospheric scattering has a reputation for being an expensive effect to implement. Post-processing could speed this up. To that effect, the question being presented is:

What are the benefits of using post-processing techniques to simulate atmospheric scattering in a computer game and what are the issues associated with its implementation?

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