Improving the StarLogo nova graphics renderer with lights and shadows

Abstract

In this thesis, I worked on improving the graphics renderer of StarLogo Nova, a browser-based simulation creator for middle/high school students. I updated the renderer to support multiple light sources (point and directional lights) and multipass rendering. The addition of multi-pass rendering enabled the addition of postprocessing effects such as bloom, as well as the addition of shadows. Various properties of the light and shadows can be tweaked to simulate different lighting conditions, such as those found in outer space. These features allow StarLogo's users to interact in new ways with the interface as well as create new types of simulations. This project was programmed in Javascript and utilizes WebGL for graphics functionality. The quality of the results were evaluated based on visual aesthetic as well as render time per frame.