Caustics Generator
Caustics can be described as the light pattern you see at the bottom of a pool on a sunny day.
This tool will let you render such caustics light patterns.
The rendered images can be animated and are tileable in both space and time.
This means that they are ideal for use in real-time graphics such as games and simulations, but can also be used for architectural renderings, film rendering or advertisement renderings where water needs to be illustrated.
Caustics are a bit more than just the pattern seen on the bottom of the pool.
Caustics is the name for the light phenomenon of converging light.
Caustics are caused by the fact that light is reflected or refracted one or several times
before actually hitting a surface. The more light that is refracted to the same area
on a surface, the brighter the area will be lit.
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To the left is a real life example of caustics taken at a beach in Rättvik, Sweden.
The water is about half a meter to a meter deep where the picture is taken. Click on the image for a larger view. |
The patterns rendered by this program are calculated by simulating
the effect of light refracting through water. The water surface is
made tileable in both space and time. This means that you seamlessly
can tile individual rendered images both horizontally and vertically.
It also means that a full generated animation sequence will loop in
time.
The rendered images can be for example be used as realtime textures
for games and animations but can also be used as light textures for
film production, advertising renderings and architectural scene
renderings.
Caustics Generator is available in two versions. One that is free
that can be downloaded from here and used by everyone. There is also
a commercial version available that is aimed for the professional users.
Caustics Generator (free version):
 Graphical user interface
Several parameters to control the caustics
Preview the output while changing the parameters
Available for the Microsoft Windows platform
Open Source
Free!
Caustics Generator Pro (commercial):
Advanced user interface with animation preview
Faster rendering of animations on multi-CPU computers
High Dynamic Range Image output (HDRI)
Command line interface for stand alone use or integration into third party programs
Available for Linux and Microsoft Windows platforms
32-bit and 64-bit support on Microsoft Windows platform
Source code can be licensed for integration into own tools
The free version of Caustics Generator is released under GNU GPL license.
If you find Caustics Generator useful, please make a small donation for its continued support.
No installation is required. Just unzip the archive and run the program.
A demo version of Caustics Generator Pro is available for download below.
If you have any questions or would like to buy the program, please send an email to
info@dualheights.se. The Windows version of the program is available for online purchase.
A receipt of your order will be sent to your stated email address. When your order has been processed you will receive another email with download instructions.
Price list for Caustics Generator Pro including one year free updates and support:
| Windows executable (32-bit and 64-bit) | 50 Euro | Buy Online |
| Linux command line executable | 70 Euro |
| Source code licensing | contact for pricing |
| v3.0 Pro 2010-08-14 |
- New user interface application
- Animation playback in user interface
- Concurrent rendering of animations on multiple CPUs
- Tiling preview
- BMP output
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| v2.0 Pro 2007-02-26 |
- Command line version for stand alone use or integration into third party programs
- HDRI output
- MS Windows / Linux support
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| v1.4 2005-01-19 |
- Motion blur filtering support.
- Added progress dialog when rending single frames and animations.
- Added minimize button on main window.
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| v1.31 2004-09-29 |
- Maximum resolution increased from 1024x1024 to 8096x8096.
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| v1.3 2003-08-06 |
- Load/Save feature.
- User definable background color instead of just grayscale on/off.
- Output file name can be selected using a file dialog.
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| v1.2 2003-05-16 |
- Time filter control added. This will allow you to control how vivid the animation shall be.
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| v1.1 2003-03-21 |
- Fixed crash in render animation feature.
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| v1.0 2003-03-18 |
- First release.
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Windows XP / Vista / 7
Linux (Pro version)
OpenGL (free version only)
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Caustics Generator v1.4