Special effects and virtual

reality
Introduction
 Special Effects
 Fog
 Particle Systems
 Virtual Reality
 Virtual reality comprises more than just displaying a scene or a
sequence of scenes on a computer screen. Stereoscopic viewing
which is necessary for real 3D effects belongs to virtual reality.
 Sound effects
 Stereoscopic Viewing
Fog
 Fog has a similar, but not the same effect as atmospheric
attenuation.
 In the case of atmospheric attenuation, light is absorbed by
dust particles in the air.
 Fog does not consist of dust particles but of extremely small
drops of water that do not absorb the light, but disperse it in
all directions.
 Because of this dispersion or diffuse reflection of the light, fog
tends to have an almost white colour.
Fog
 As in the case of atmospheric attenuation, the visibility of
objects decreases with increasing distance in the presence of
fog.
 In contrast to atmospheric attenuation, fog also causes a
white or grey background colour.
 The colour of an object is blended with the colour of the fog.
Attenuation corresponds to black fog.
Fog on the scene
Fog Computation Model
 Fog is based on an increasing blending function b:
 Given the distance d of an object to the viewer, the colour intensity
Iobject of the object and the colour intensity Ifog of the fog, the intensity
of the object in the fog is computed in a similar way as in the case of
interpolated transparency.
Fog Types
 The blending function has usually either a linear or an
exponential slope. Based on the slope there are two types of
Fogs.
 Linear Fog
 Exponential Fog
Fog Types
 Linear Fog:
 Linear fog does not reduce the sight up to the distance d = d0,
i.e., no blending with the fog takes place.
 For distances larger than d = d , the fog dominates completely
1

so that objects farther away than distance d become invisible.

1

 The effect of the fog increases in a linear fashion between d and

0

d . The blending function for linear fog is given by

1
Fog Types
 Exponential Fog:
 The more realistic exponential fog is based on an exponential
increase of the effect of fog controlled by the factor α > 0.
 The larger the value α, the more dense is the fog.
 The blending function is given by
Particle Systems
 Wafts of fog and related effects like smoke are modelled by
particle systems.
 A particle system is composed of many small particles that are
not controlled individually, but by a few parameters and random
mechanisms.
 All particles have the same underlying basic behaviour pattern.
 Individual variations in the behaviour pattern are caused by the
random mechanism.
 A particle usually has a random life span, it moves in a certain
direction which can also be changed by a random mechanism
and sometimes it can also split and generate new particles.
Particle Systems-Examples
1. A fire could be modelled by a particle system
 The particles would be generated on the ground where the fire
is burning. All particles carry out an upwards movement with a
constant speed.
 The direction and the speed are modified by random values.
 The life span of the particles is also determined on a random
basis.
 The mean life span should be chosen in such a way that the
particles reach half the height of the fire on average.
 The particles can also split with a certain probability while they
fly upwards.
Particle Systems-Examples
 An explosion would be modelled in a similar way with the
differences that the speed of the particles would be much
higher and that the particles start off in a random direction
from the centre of the explosion, not mainly upwards as in for
the fire.
Particle Systems-Examples
 Swarm behaviour for modelling, e.g., flocks of birds or
shoals, is related to particle systems.
 A swarm can be considered as a particle system plus a
control for the coordination of the particles.
 The particles or individuals in a swarm move approximately
with the same speed and in the same direction, but not
exactly.
 An important aspect for swarm behaviour in contrast to simple
particle systems is avoidance of collisions.
 Rule-based methods from artificial intelligence are very often
used for modelling swarm behaviour.
Particle Systems-Examples
Sound effects
 Sound effects do not belong to the core part of computer
graphics.
 They are nevertheless needed for many realistic animations and
are part of virtual reality applications.
 Dynamic changes happen when moving objects produce sound
or when the viewer navigates through the scene.
 The ability to recognize a sound is mainly based on the
 Location where it is generated

 Volume – Intensity of sound

 Distance
Types of Sound
 There are different categories of sound effects.
 Background Sound
 Point Sound
 Cone Sound
 The sounds are usually stored as sound files in Wave or MP3
format.
 They can then be triggered by events. The volume of the
sound must be adapted depending on the distance to the
viewer, and also the distribution of sound to the channels
depends on the position of the viewer.
Sound Effects
 Background Sound
 A sound can be background music or background noise like wind or
rain.
 Background noise does not seem to come from a source with a well-
defined position.
 It is present everywhere in the scene or a part of the scene.
 Background is similar to ambient light which also does not have a
specific source and location or direction.
 It is simply present everywhere in the scene.
Sound Effects
 Point Sound
 Point Sound is the sound equivalent of a point light source.
 A Point Sound has a specific location in the scene and its volume
decreases with increasing distance.
 When more than one channel is available, the Point Sound can also
be distributed to the channels depending on the direction it comes
from.
Sound Effects
 Cone Sound
 The Cone Sound is the spotlight among the sounds.
 Like a Point Sound it has a location, but it spreads only in one
direction within a cone of sound.
 A pure Cone Sound is not realistic, since noise cannot be directed in
the same way as light.
 A Cone Sound in connection with a Point Sound at the same
position leads to more realistic effects.
Stereoscopic viewing
 Stereoscopic viewing, the ability to extract 3D information
from what the two eyes see, is based on a variety and
combination of factors.
 Monocular Viewing
 Seeing with one eye only, will still provide some 3D information based on
monocular factors.
 Binocular Viewing
 Binocular factors exploit the richer information combining the images
coming from both eyes
Stereoscopic viewing
 Monocular Viewing Factors are:
 The monocular factors aggregate the information coming from only one eye.
 eyes for stereoscopic viewing.
 The focus (accommodation):

 When the eye views an object, the lens has to be adjusted by muscle
contractions in the eye so that the object is in focus. Objects in the far
background get out of focus. This provides a certain information
about distances.
 Parallax of movements:

 Parallax of movements can be observed when objects move relative

to each other. The position and the size of the objects are crucial for
this information. Moving objects change their distance to the viewer.
Stereoscopic viewing
 Monocular Viewing Factors are:
 Masking:
 When one object is hidden partly from sight by another object it can be
concluded that the completely visible object must be closer to the viewer
than the other object.
 Light and shadows:
 From the location, the direction, the shape and the size of the shadow cast
by an object, conclusions can be drawn about the location of the object
itself and about the shape of the object on which the shadow is cast.
 Attenuation:
 The effects of atmospheric attenuation increase with the distance. Objects
in the far distance appear less contrasted than closer ones.
Stereoscopic viewing
 Monocular Viewing Factors are:
 Size:
 From the size of an object in an image compared to the size of other objects
and the known size of the object, the distance of the object to the viewer
can be estimated. Closer objects are larger. This means if an object that is
known to be large occurs small, it must be far away from the viewer.
 Head movements:
 Seeing with two eyes has the advantage that two images from slightly
different positions are available at the same time. From the differences in
the two images, the three-dimensional information can be retrieved.
 But even with one eye it is possible to have images from different positions
by moving the head or the whole body. The different images do not come in
parallel as with two eyes. But the small difference in time can be
compensated, at least with some effort
Stereoscopic viewing

 Binocular Viewing Factors:

 The binocular factors combine and aggregate the information coming
from both eyes for stereoscopic viewing.
 Difference of the images:
 Since the two eyes view the same scene from two slightly different
positions1, three-dimensional information can be retrieved from a
comparison of the two images.
 Convergence:
 The eyes have the ability to modify the direction of view by turning the
eyeballs slightly. The closer an object is to the eyes, the more the eyeballs
are turned inside. Based on this slight turn of the eyeballs, the distance of
an object in focus can also be roughly estimated.
Stereoscopic viewing
 Binocular Viewing Factors:
 Pulfrich effect:
 This effect was discovered in 1922 by the German physicist Carl Pulfrich. A
bright stimulus is noticed or processed faster by the brain than a dark one.
Wearing glasses with one darkened side, this effect can be used to
generate 3D impressions for special image sequences.
Stereoscopic viewing
 In order to enable stereoscopic viewing with both eyes in
computer graphics, it is necessary to provide different images
for the left and right eye.
 The generation of the two images does not cause any
problems from the viewpoint of computer graphics.
 Two perspective projections of the same scene with slightly
different centres of projection are needed.
Stereoscopic viewing
 Techniques for Generating stereoscopic images
 Anaglyph images:
 It is a very old approach to stereoscopic viewing.
 The two images are drawn with different colours, in most cases one in red
and the other one in green.
 To view the two overlaid images special glasses must be worn with different
colour filters for the two eyes.
 A disadvantage of anaglyph images is the loss of colour information.
Stereoscopic viewing
 Techniques for Generating stereoscopic images
 Polarised light:
 Light waves oscillate around the axis of the direction in which they spread.
Polarised light oscillates only in one plane. The images for the two eyes are
projected to a screen with different polarisations. The viewer must wear
glasses with the corresponding polarisations for the two eyes.
 Polarisation is well suited for projectors, but not for computer monitors. Liquid
crystal shutter glasses are more common for computer monitors. The images
for the two eyes are presented alternatingly on the computer screen.
 The user must wear liquid crystal shutter glasses which are synchronised with
the monitor. The liquid crystals can be switched from transparent to dark by an
electric voltage. The shutter glasses darken the eye whose image is not shown
at that moment on the computer screen. Since the image frequency for each
eye is reduced by half in this way, it is recommended to use a special monitor
with a higher frequency of at least 100 Hz.
Stereoscopic viewing

 Techniques for Generating stereoscopic images

 Head-Mounted Display:
 A head-mounted display is usually a small helmet with two LCD displays
with magnifying lenses, one for each eye.
 Head tracking is required when the viewer can move around in the scene
wearing the helmet.
 Headphones can also be integrated into the helmet for sound effects.
 The disadvantage is that wearing a helmet is not as comfortable as wearing
glasses.
Stereoscopic viewing
 Challenging Problem
 A principal problem for these stereoscopic viewing techniques is the
contradiction of constant focussing for varying distances.
 The focus of the eyes should always be kept fixed on the computer
monitor, even if objects in the virtual world are viewed that seem to
be far away behind the computer monitor or that appear to be in front
of the monitor. T
 his contradiction can cause headaches for some people when they
use such techniques for stereoscopic viewing.
Stereoscopic viewing
 Accommodation
 Accommodation refers to the point where the lens of the eye should
be focussed, convergence to the turning of the eyeballs.
Stereoscopic viewing
 Parallax for stereoscopic viewing
 Stereoscopic techniques are based on the correct choice of the
parallax.
 Parallax refers to the difference of the images for the two eyes, when
the same object is projected.
Stereoscopic viewing
 Parallax for stereoscopic viewing
 A virtual object which is exactly in the distance of the projection
plane, i.e., the computer monitor, has no parallax. Its projections are
identical for the two eyes.
 The projection of an object behind the projection plane is shifted
farther to the right for the right eye and farther to the left for the left
eye. This is called a positive parallax.
 For objects in front of the projection plane or monitor, the situation is
reversed. They have a negative parallax.
Thank you