Mount Everest Snow Visualization

Overview

This project renders a 3D Mount Everest model with a flowing snow particle system that simulates snowfall along the mountain's surface.

New Features

Snow Particle System

• 800 animated particles that simulate falling snow
• Particles flow downward with realistic gravity and wind effects
• Smooth fade-in/fade-out effects for natural appearance
• Configurable emission center and radius
• Real-time updates based on delta time

Implementation Details

SnowParticle.h

• SnowParticle struct: Stores individual particle data (position, velocity, lifetime, size, alpha)
• SnowSystem class: Manages the entire particle system
  • Initializes particles with random properties
  • Updates particle positions and lifetimes each frame
  • Adds wind effect for horizontal drift
  • Automatically respawns particles when they expire

Pipeline Integration

• Snow particles are transformed through the same view and projection matrices as the mesh
• Particles are rendered after the mesh to appear on top
• Uses OpenGL blending for semi-transparent particles
• Performs frustum culling to skip off-screen particles

Controls

Camera Movement

• W/S: Move camera forward/backward
• A/D: Rotate camera left/right
• Arrow Keys: Pan camera up/down/left/right
• Z/X: Rotate around X-axis
• C/V: Rotate around Y-axis

Lighting

• R/F: Move light along X-axis
• T/G: Move light along Y-axis
• Y/H: Move light along Z-axis

Visualization

• P: Toggle wireframe mode
• N: Toggle snow particles ON/OFF
• M: Toggle background texture mixing
• 1/2/3: Switch background images
• ESC: Exit application

Technical Architecture

Rendering Pipeline

1. Geometry Processing: Load and transform Mount Everest mesh
2. Lighting Calculation: Phong illumination model
3. View Transformation: Camera matrix calculation
4. Projection: Perspective projection to screen space
5. Clipping: Near plane and screen edge clipping
6. Rasterization: Triangle rasterization with texture mapping
7. Particle Rendering: Transform and draw snow particles

Performance Optimizations

• Particles only rendered when visible (frustum culling)
• Efficient particle updates using delta time
• Z-sorting for correct depth ordering
• Reuses particle memory (no dynamic allocation per frame)

File Structure

Core Files

• Pipeline.h: Main rendering pipeline with snow integration
• SnowParticle.h: Snow particle system implementation
• main.cpp: Application entry point and input handling
• Light.h: Phong lighting calculations
• DrawInterpolatedTriangle.h: Triangle rasterization
• mesh.h: OBJ file loader
• texLoad.h: Texture loading

Math Libraries

• Vec3.h: 3D vector operations
• Vec2.h: 2D vector operations
• Mat4.h: 4x4 matrix transformations

Building and Running

Prerequisites

• C++ compiler with C++11 support
• OpenGL and GLUT libraries
• stb_image library for texture loading

Compilation

g++ -o everest main.cpp -lGL -lGLU -lglut -lm

Running

./everest

Make sure the following files exist in the OBJFiles/ directory:

• Everest7.obj - The 3D mesh model
• Mount1.jpg - Texture for the mountain
• back2.jpg, back3.jpg, back5.jpg - Background images (optional)

Customization

Adjusting Snow Behavior

In Pipeline.h constructor:

snowSystem(800)  // Change number of particles

In SnowParticle.h:

emissionRadius(50.0f)  // Change spread of snow emission
maxLifetime = randomFloat(3.0f, 7.0f)  // Adjust particle lifetime
velocity.y = randomFloat(-8.0f, -4.0f)  // Change fall speed

Adjusting Snow Appearance

In Pipeline::renderSnowParticles():

glPointSize(3.0f);  // Change particle size
glColor4f(1.0f, 1.0f, 1.0f, p.alpha * 0.8f);  // Adjust color/transparency

Known Limitations

• Snow particles don't collide with the mesh surface
• No wind direction control from user interface
• Particle count affects performance on slower systems

Future Enhancements

• Surface-aligned particle flow
• Particle collision with mesh geometry
• Trail effects for particles
• Dynamic wind control
• Accumulation of snow on surface
• Different particle shapes (sprites instead of points)

Credits

• 3D graphics pipeline based on software rasterization techniques
• Snow particle system inspired by classical particle effects
• Phong lighting model for realistic illumination

Controls

Used c++ and glut