Desertscape Simulation

Abstract

We present an interactive aeolian simulation to author hot desert scenery. Wind is an important erosion agent in deserts which, despite its importance, has been neglected in computer graphics. Our framework overcomes this and allows generating a variety of sand dunes, including barchans, longitudinal and anchored dunes, and simulates abrasion which erodes bedrock and sculpts complex landforms. Given an input time varying high altitude wind field, we compute the wind field at the surface of the terrain according to the relief, and simulate the transport of sand blown by the wind. The user can interactively model complex desert landscapes, and control their evolution throughout time either by using a variety of interactive brushes or by prescribing events along a user‐defined time‐line.

Flexible Terrain Erosion - A Fluid Simulation-Independent Approach Compatible with Multiple Representations

“…Air particles follow closely the flowfield given by the user in air. This flowfield can be given from a complex simulation, a user-defined wind rose [35] or a random flowfield with a general direction. The generation of the different sand structures depends on the velocity field provided, and a simple field will easily generate linear dunes.…”

“…Figure 14: Wind gives an example of wind erosion on a flat surface with rock columns being eroded. Given a strong 2D velocity field computed by the high wind simulation proposed in [35] is used on light particles, the simulation is fast thanks to the low number of collisions each particle has with the ground.…”

“…Wind Erosion shifts material through wind force, notably impacting areas with fine surface particles like deserts. It has been modeled on discrete height fields [35,40] by mimicking sand's wind-driven trajectory and using thermal erosion for corrections. This process is simulated by iteratively displacing small amounts of matter, which make it less suitable for representations with discrete height resolution.…”

“…Wind erosion on stacked materials representation: Paris et al [35] simulate the effect of wind over sand fields defined on stacked materials, creating dune structures, even taking into account obstacles like [40] and different material layers like vegetation [11] that are not affected by abrasion [35]. A wind field simulation is required to produce results, and while [40] and [32] consider a uniform vector field, this work consider a dynamic vector multi-scaled warped field from the terrain height.…”

Windblown sand around obstacles - simulation and validation of deposition patterns

“…Around 1 15 𝑡ℎ of the Earth's lands is covered by sand [L. Raffaele 2019], giving rise to fascinating dune landscapes, but also to unintended deposition of sand on infrastructures (buildings, roads, railways). Simulating the formation of dunes has attracted attention in computer graphics to create plausible virtual worlds [Paris et al 2019], as well as in geo-sciences to anticipate and mitigate real-world sand deposition [Raffaele et al 2022]. On the one hand, methods from computer graphics offer high speed and user control, but make simplifying assumptions that are seldom validated against real-world experiments [Taylor and Keyser 2023].…”