Ocean waves synthesis using a spectrum-based turbulence function

Abstract

The representation of ocean waves is not a resolved problem in computer graphics yet. There is still no existing method that allows one to simply describe an agitated surface of any size that is visually sufficiently realistic, without using entirely physical models that are usually very complex. We present a simple method to represent and animate an ocean surface in deep water by considering it as a procedural texture. This texture is defined by a combination of two levels of detail. The first one is a superposition of 2D trochoids whose parameters are determined by ocean wave characteristics infrequency domain. In order to increase the visual complexity of this model and to reduce computation, we incorporate a 3D turbulence function to provide a second level of detail. This turbulence function is also determined by frequency characteristics of ocean waves. Since our synthesized ocean waves spectrum approaches a real ocean waves spectrum, we obtain realistic water waves in the spatial domain. The animation of our model is performed by shifting the phase of the trochoids and by moving into the 3D turbulence function. Since our definition is procedural and continuous, it permits us to obtain any size of water surface with any level of detail as well as a simple, direct, antialiasing method. Our model can be used to generate ocean waves using 2D textures or bump maps as well as 3D textures.