Sand Globe

This project was produced for the Masters module “Real-Time Graphics” which I enrolled on as part of the University of Hull’s Post Graduate Training Scheme for PhD students. The task was to produce a C++ DirectX 11 application that presented a “Sandy Snow Globe” scene, this is a take on the classic Snow Globe, where the Globe contains a Desert that has a night/day and season cycle.

In the scene, the camera can move freely inside and out of the Globe, the Globe contains a Desert filled with Cactii, The Cactii grow over time, especially during the rain season. In the globe there are 4 seasons, with the first two seasons having rain, the third being dry and the fourth being snowy.

The day/night cycle is provided by a rotating directional light. The weather effects are produced using a particle system that renders particles using Instanced rendering. The Globe is translucent from the outside but opaque from the inside which is achieved using a mixture of flipped normals on the globe, and face culling. A basic UI is provided using the AntTweakBar library.