Sundog Software Renders Genesis Creation Story on Computer Screens with Awesome Realism

ORLANDO, Fla. --- In the beginning, Genesis tells us, God created the earth and the heavens, and the earth was covered with water. Sundog Software at the UCF Business Incubator is recreating those elements---the oceans and the heavens---with startling realism for computer screens used in the gaming industry and military and commercial training simulators. For the past two years Sundog has ranked as the industry leader for its realistic depiction of ocean waves and currents. The software is used by gaming developers and simulation designers to train maritime professionals onshore. Sundog recently released SilverLining 4, its most advanced software suite, which depicts a realistic sky. Any sky. Operators can create stratus and overcast cloud layers with three dimensional depth, and a physically rigorous simulation of how light scatters within thick cloud formations. “SilverLining’s new stratus clouds are so realistic you’ll even see effects like fogbows, glories, and anti-solar points, and it just falls naturally out of the math behind it all,” says Frank Kane, founder of Sundog Software. SilverLining 4 achieves these effects by rigorously simulating the scattering of light within clouds using the best model available: Mie scattering, which is simulated down to 0.1 degree resolution at multiple wavelengths. By taking advantage of the capabilities of modern graphics cards, this level of detail can be applied to cloud layers 200 kilometers across, while still running at over 60 frames per second. “It’s all about creating an immersive virtual environment,” Kane said. “In an outdoor scene, an overcast sky might make up half of the image. If it doesn’t look real, your brain will pick up on that and we don’t want that to happen in flight training and simulation where the reduced visibility associated with these clouds is a big deal,” he explained. SilverLining 4 is available for licensing today at http://www.sundog-soft.com/. Free trial versions and demos are also offered for evaluation purposes. Sundog Software is a client company of the University of Central Florida Business Incubation Program located at Central Florida Research Park in East Orange County.