Occlusion-Based Snow Accumulation Simulation

Abstract

We present a fast technique for the simulation of accumulated snow. Our technique is based on two phenomena; local occlusion of small holes and ditches, and the global influence of a skylight. We use ambient occlusion to predict the shape and location of snow accumulation and direct illumination from the skylight to simulate the melting and sublimation of snow as dissipation. The snow is simulated as a 3D layer that is added to the input scene. Our technique is a fast approximation and does not aim to be used for small and local features within a simulation. A scene with over 500k triangles can be calculated in about seven minutes on a standard computer and the major part of the calculation runs on the GPU. Results of our algorithm should be used for large distance views.