The aim of this project is to emulate the light patterns known as water caustics typically seen on on the bottom of a swimming pool. I investigate various methods of simulating water surfaces and associated caustics.

The engine is able to render various scenes at interractive framerates:

You can check out a video of this scene over at Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBT9THaPt4A&hd=1

This code has been written in Python 2.7 with the following additional modules:

Numpy for fast array operations

Pyglet for OpenGL and windowing + controls

Code from the pyglet-shaders project is used for compiling GLSL shaders.

Currently three methods of simulating water surfaces have been implemented, these are:

• FBO ping-pong for shallow water ripples with user interraction via the mouse.
• Sombrero function (a composite creates something resembling a water surface).
• Tessendorf's FFT synthesis technique.

The scene instance in main.py uses the Tessendorf ocean surface simulator by default.

Caustic generation is performed by tracing the path of refracted light rays through the water's surface and then calculating the interception point on the sea bed at a user specified depth. The interception points are recorded in a "Photon map" which is then passed to a shader that draws GL_POINTS at the photon positions; the accumulation of photons at the same position on the sea bed creates a caustic pattern.

Install the required dependencies and then run main.py!

This software can be used to create looping, tileable animated caustic textures for use in other programs by calling the script with the --grab switch:

$ python main.py --grab

Caustic frames like the one below will be saved to the location specified by the framegrabpath in the options.ini file.

A listing of the controls is provided below, these depend on which renderer is in use:

Tessendorf FFT synthesis renderer:

• M Enable or Disable the Caustics Engine
• V Lower the height of the water plane
• C Raise the height of the water plane
• U Increase the scale of the caustic photons
• J Decrease the scale of the caustic photons
• Y Increase the intensity of the caustics
• H Decrease the intensity of the caustics
• Z Toggle drawing ocean surface
• X Toggle drawing ocean floor
• MOUSE Look
• WSAD Move
• QE Change roll
• SPACE Toggle timer (pauses surface animations)
• NUM_4/NUM_5 Double/halve Z wind component
• NUM_1/NUM_2 Double/halve X wind component
• NUM_7/NUM_8 Double/halve phillips spectrum factor (affects wave height)
• L Toggle wireframe

Thanks to Keith Lantz for his excellent guide on Tessendorf's ocean simulation technique

The sand and tile textures are by Patrick Hoesly on Flickr

The sky environment map "Miramar" is by Jockum "hipshot" Skoglund: www.zfight.com