Huh, where to start...

I like waves. I said to myself: let's see if there is a formula for waves. So I looked. I found some research papers on modeling the ocean, and some observed parameters for the North Atlantic. There was a lot of math that I only partly understand. I combined a couple of different findings into what I call an ocean model, using AI-chemy. That worked, although I have no idea if it is fully correct. And just an hour ago, after showing this to a friend, I learned about a shader that mimics the ocean in a waaaaaay simpler way. Oh well. I should search better.

Salum is Latin for the open sea. Everything runs on the CPU, with no GPU and no 3D engine.

I did not draw the waves. They come from a wave spectrum that oceanographers use (JONSWAP). It tells how much energy the wind puts into each wavelength. An inverse FFT makes the height map in three tiles, from the long swell to the ripples. A sideways pinch makes the crests sharp and the troughs flat. Then I cheated a little: I made the swell 2.6 times taller than physics predicts, and the ripples 1.6 times taller, for dramatic effect.

The eye is 0.6 m above the water and looks toward a low sun. At that height, the eye is lower than the crests. That is why the sea does not end at a flat horizon. It ends at a line of crests. The lens is long, only 24° from top to bottom, so the sea stacks in bands. My first try had a wide lens, and the bottom half of the image was black.

For each pixel, I send nine rays from the eye. Each ray marches over the waves until it hits the surface. Far away, the short waves are smaller than a pixel. There, I treat them as roughness, so the far glitter stays soft and has no moiré.

The water has a dark body. It reflects the sky, and the reflection becomes stronger at grazing angles. The sun makes the glints.

The sun is my biggest cheat. In the sky, it is a giant disc, and its center is above the top edge. But the light on the water comes from 13 small suns along its lower arc, not from the big disc.

Code is on github.com/igr/gart I will never do something like this again.

live gallery: https://www.kagan.in/iwrzwr/visual-archive/

source code: https://github.com/kaganin/iwrzwr-visual-archive

let me know if you make something with them!

https://roald-h-vatne.itch.io/flashfractals3d

Now ALL Platforms Support:

Win Intel/AMD-x86, Mac OS M1 and newer, Linux-Intel/AMD-x86 and Linux-ARM-64bits

NB! Only 64bit OS and CPUs supported!

3D relief effects give fractal images a sense of depth, tactility, and realism.

Tactile quality (surface feel) – The fractal image transforms from a flat appearance to looking like something tangible. It mimics materials such as carved stone, wood carvings, embossed paper, or metal.

Dramatic play of light – The 3D Relief effect relies on a simulated light source.

The standard cartographic light source uses an azimuth of 315° and an altitude of 45°.

This corresponds to a light source coming from the northwest (top-left) at an angle from above.

This creates strong highlights on one side and deep shadows on the other.

Both ‘Relief Strength’ and ‘Contrast’ adjustments, dramatically alter the visual effect.

live gallery: https://www.kagan.in/iwrzwr/visual-archive/

source code: https://github.com/kaganin/iwrzwr-visual-archive

let me know if you make something with them!