Real-time Volumetric Cloud Visualization of Meteorological Simulation Data

Citation: Kenkenberg, Alexander: Real-time Volumetric Cloud Visualization of Meteorological Simulation Data. 28. September 2022. Open Data LMU. 10.5282/ubm/data.311

Abstract

Notes: This archive contains a cyclone simulation as png/csv files and as Unreal Engine 4.27 assets. Documentation can be found in the linked git repository. Abstract: I present a concept for visualizing realistic volumetric clouds in real-time in the Unreal Engine using a scientific weather simulation as a basis. From the simulation files, I extract and compress non-linearly spaced variables such as cloud density, rainfall, and wind speed. Cloud density is used as the basis for ray-marched volumetric clouds in Unreal Engine. The clouds use wind speed as a flow map and rain density as a color map. I add Voronoi noise to the clouds and mask it with wind speed to add dynamic detail. I am also able to animate all time steps of the simulation in real-time. A user study shows that most of the added effects improve realism and my implementation is five out of six times more realistic than previous methods. The median performance of a playable prototype on consumer-grade hardware is 128~FPS and meets the performance target.

Keywords

Volumetric Cloud, Unreal Engine, Python, Real Time, Simulation, Meteorological Simulation

• Item Type: Data
• Contact Person: Kenkenberg, Alexander
• E-Mail of Contact: alex.kenkenberg at gmail.com
• Subjects: Faculty of Mathematics, Computer Science and Statistics; Faculty of Physics
• Dewey Decimal Classification: 600 Natural sciences and mathematics; 600 Natural sciences and mathematics > 530 Physics