Microsoft Research has developed a solution to create weathering effects (rust, dirt, splashes, or cracks) in a computer graphic. The technique models a large number of age-inducing particles, records the transport information of the particles, and then computes the various weathering effects. The system uses different types of particles and different types of materials with varying properties to model the effects.

Application, Prototype

• A prototype that is implemented in C++
• Operating system: Windows XP

Performance (measured on PC with 3 GHz P4 processor):

• It takes ~1 minute to trace 15,000 ?-tons in a scene with 100,000 surface points.
• It takes ~1.5-2 minutes to trace 63,000 ?-tons in a scene with 100,000 surface points.