Kaiya Magnuson | 2024 I.S. Symposium

Name: Kaiya Magnuson
Title: A Performance Analysis of the Sum of Sines and Fast Fourier Transform Algorithms for Real-Time Ocean Rendering
Major: Computer Science
Minors: Mathematics; French & Francophone Studies
Advisor: Asa’d As’ad

Computer-generated water is a key element for establishing atmosphere and interactivity in video games, films, and computer simulations. This study explores the efficiency of two fundamental real-time ocean rendering algorithms: the sum of sines and Fast Fourier Transform (FFT). This study answers the question: Which ocean modelling algorithms have the most significant impact on ocean shader performance, as measured by frame rate, render time, and current memory usage? Both algorithms produce detailed, animated ocean meshes, but the FFT has a more efficient anticipated time complexity. This study implements the sum of sines algorithm in an ocean shader for the Godot rendering engine. This study also examines one open-source implementation of the Fast Fourier Transform algorithm in an ocean shader for the Unity game engine. This research question is answered by profiling the average frame rate, render time, and memory usage of both shaders at varying model mesh resolutions and levels of wave detail. It is found that the FFT implementation outperforms the sum of sines implementation at higher mesh resolutions, but the sum of sines implementation achieves a consistently higher frame rate than the FFT at higher levels of wave detail, which contradicts the expected algorithmic complexity of the FFT. However, the FFT shader is more visually realistic than the sum of sines shader, especially at high levels of wave detail. It is critical to make advancements in water rendering efficiency since water often requires a significant portion of computation resources in real-time graphics applications. Contemporary video games are challenged with balancing high game performance expectations with realistic water appearance, motion, and interactivity. Analyzing the performance of two common ocean generation algorithms and their variations helps establish a guideline for developing efficient yet realistic ocean shaders.

Posted in Symposium 2024 on April 24, 2024.