We propose a method for real-time photorealistic stereo rendering of the natural phenomenon of fire. Applications
include the use of virtual reality in fire fighting, military training, and entertainment. Rendering fire in real-time
presents a challenge because of the transparency and non-static fluid-like behavior of fire. It is well known that, in
general, methods that are effective for monoscopic rendering are not necessarily easily extended to stereo rendering
because monoscopic methods often do not provide the depth information necessary to produce the parallax required for
binocular disparity in stereoscopic rendering. We investigate the existing techniques used for monoscopic rendering of
fire and discuss their suitability for extension to real-time stereo rendering. Methods include the use of precomputed
textures, dynamic generation of textures, and rendering models resulting from the approximation of solutions of fluid
dynamics equations through the use of ray-tracing algorithms. We have found that in order to attain real-time frame
rates, our method based on billboarding is effective. Slicing is used to simulate depth. Texture mapping or 2D images
are mapped onto polygons and alpha blending is used to treat transparency. We can use video recordings or prerendered
high-quality images of fire as textures to attain photorealistic stereo.
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