Real-time Rendering and Animation of Vegetation: Advances in Displaying Vegetation for Interactive Applications

Vegetation rendering and animation in real-time applications still pose a significant problem due to the inherent complexity of plants. Both the high geometric complexity and intricate light transport require specialized techniques to achieve high-quality rendering of vegetation in real time. This thesis presents new algorithms that address various areas of both vegetation rendering and animation. For grass rendering, an efficient algorithm to display grass is introduced. Also, a method to efficiently render leaves is introduced. Leaves exhibit a complex light transport behavior due to subsurface scattering and special attention is given to the translucency of leaves, an integral part of leaf shading. To animate a tree, a novel deformation method based on a structural mechanics model that incorporates the important physical properties of branches is introduced. To drive this deformation, an optimized spectral approach that also incorporates the physical properties of branches is used. Additionally, a method to use dynamic skylight models in spherical harmonics precomputed radiance transfer techniques is introduced, allowing to change the skylight parameters in real time.