Sea Surface Simulation in Large Coastal Region for Maritime Simulators

Abstract

A novel method for simulating large-scale, nearshore sea surface is presented. The whole simulating process can be divided into two phases: pre-computing phase and real-time computing phase. In pre-computing phase, wave parameter distribution of a simulation area is worked out using the SWAN (Simulating WAves Nearshore) model on a coarse grid. In real-time computing phase, a small height field surrounding the viewpoint is generated using the Fast Fourier Transformation (FFT) based method every frame. The wave parameters used in the FFT-based method are dynamically changed according to viewpoint's projective position on the coarse grid. Then, the height field is saved as a vertex texture, which can be tiled in horizontal directions seamlessly. At last, the vertex texture is sampled by a sector sea surface, which is viewpoint-dependent and has Level Of Detail (LOD) effect. Several shading trips are used to generate optical effects of sea surface, such as reflection, refraction etc. Experimental results show this method can be applied to simulating large-scale sea surface in real-time with realistic effect. It is especially suitable for the application in maritime simulators.