Robin O'Connell

   

Flooded Graveyard

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During my penultimate semester at CSU Sacramento, I took an advanced course in computer graphics (CSC 155) taught by the inimitable Dr. Scott Gordon. This was my final project for that course: an atmospheric 3D scene depicting a flooded graveyard on a cloudy, starlit night, populated with trees, grave markers, and a spooky ghost that drifts aimlessly in search of lost souls.

While you could throw a scene like this together in under an hour with a modern game engine like Unity or Godot, this was an exercise in fundamentals—what it would take to make something like those engines' rendering subsystems. Nearly everything you see here, from the perspective, to the lighting, to the rippling, reflective surface of the water, was built up from bare mathematical principles. (I say "nearly" because OpenGL lends a helping hand with the interpolation of vertex attributes, texture sampling, and rasterization.) A list of the techniques I employed is given below.

Screenshots

A dim scene of scattered grave markers breaching the surface of standing water. A vague ghostlike figure hangs in the air next to a cross-shaped marble monument. A few fog-cloaked trees are silhouetted against the cloudy night sky and reflected in the water. An underwater view of grave markers and tree roots. The tops of the markers and silhouettes of trees against a cloudy night sky appear distorted and blue-tinted beyond the surface of the water. Two images of a gravestone with an uneven, cracked surface. The first is lit from above left, indicated by a yellow square. In the second, the light is lower and to the right. A ring of gravestones viewed from a top-down perspective. Shadows radiate outward like spokes, cast by a central light indicated by a yellow square. The surface of the water viewed at an angle. Near the top—farther from the viewer—the water reflects the sky and trees. Near the bottom—closer to the viewer—a grassy expanse shows through. This image is split in two. On the left is cedar-like foliage. The dark background peeks through gaps and outlines the complex perimeter of individual needles. On the right, the graveyard is obscured by semi-opaque fabric which seems to be draped over an unseen figure. Close-up of the base of the cross-shaped marble monument. The contiguous nature of its smoky black-and-white texture suggests that it was carved from a single block of stone.

Tools & Technologies

  • Java
  • OpenGL/JOGL
  • GLSL
  • JOML

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