Grass is the most prevalent form of vegetation on the Earth’s surface. Thus, it is an essential element in rendering realistic outdoor scenes. But due to the geometric complexity of grass, rendering it realistically in real-time can be difficult and computationally expensive. Traditionally, video games have not focused on rendering realistic grass due to the geometric complexity and expense of rendering realistic grass. Traditional representations of grass usually involve rendering patterned patches of grass which negatively affects player immersion.
But as the computational power of modern graphics processors become progressively more effective, the possibility of rendering realistic outdoor scenes with lush fields of grass becomes more promising. To produce life-like representations of grass fields requires the rendering of tens-of-thousands of blades of grass per frame and faithful physical simulations of movement provided by wind currents.
My master’s thesis is all about discovering and implementing an algorithm that renders an infinite field of grass in real-time. My technique relies heavily on the geometry and vertex shaders in order to procedurally generate each blade in real-time. Wind conditions are affected by the player movement, in which vector fields is generated and diffused mathematically throughout the scene. This project was conceived and developed within a time frame of four months.