Nvidia Corporation

Matthias Müller-Fischer

Markus H Gross

Nuttapong Chentanez

Bruno Heidelberger

Simon Schirm

Matthias Teschner

Nils Thüerey

Stefan Felix Duthaler

One embodiment of the present invention sets forth an Eulerian fluid simulation technique which enables real-time simulations of large scale three dimensional fluid volumes that include free surface water. A hybrid grid representation composed of regular cubic cells on top of a layer of tall cells is used to reduce computation time. Water above an arbitrary terrain can be represented without consuming an excessive amount of memory and compute power, while focusing simulation effort on the area near the surface of the water to produce accurate results. Additionally, the grid representation may be optimized for a graphics processor implementation of the fluid solver.

Real-time eulerian water simulation using a restricted tall cell grid

One embodiment of the present invention sets forth multigrid generation technique which enables accurate simulations of large scale three dimensional (3D) fluid volumes. A model of the fluid to be simulated is represented using a cell grid. The generated multigrid provides a hierarchy of increasingly coarser representations of the model that are used by a pressure solver. Eulerian simulation techniques require solving a linear system to determine pressure values for each cell within the cell grid. Different levels of the multigrid are then used to compute the pressure values for different regions of the model, maintaining accuracy near the surface of the fluid while simplifying the computations. The accurate pressure values ensure that the simulation produces detailed features of the water movement. Additionally, the multigrid pressure solver may be optimized for execution by a graphics processor.

Multigrid pressure solver for fluid simulation

A physics simulation engine simulates the motion of one or more particles that represent virtual objects in a virtual graphics scene. Each particle is assigned to a level in a particle hierarchy that has at least two levels. The physics simulation engine collapses constraints associated with particles assigned to a first level of the particle hierarchy to generate hierarchical constraints associated with particles assigned to the second level of the particle hierarchy. The physics simulation engine updates the position of each particle assigned to the second level of the particle hierarchy by enforcing constraints associated with the particle. The physics simulation engine then updates the position of each particle assigned to the first level of the particle hierarchy based on the positions of the particles assigned to the second level of the particle hierarchy.

Hierarchical position-based dynamics

A method of stimulating a deformable object comprises modeling deformable elasticity for the object by defining an actual shape and a goal shape and pulling points in the goal shape towards corresponding points in the goal shape.

Method of simulating deformable object using geometrically motivated model

A system, method, and computer program product are provided for depicting a body of water utilizing a height field and particles. In use, content depicting a body of water is identified. Additionally, a height field is generated for the content. Furthermore, at least a portion of the height field is converted to a plurality of particles based on predetermined criteria.

System, method, and computer program product for depicting a body of water utilizing a height field and particles

One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a technique for efficiently simulating breaking waves in real-time. A two-dimensional shallow water height field simulation generates height and velocity information used to generate a wave line for each wave within the height field that satisfies criteria for overturning. For each overturning wave, a wave sheet is created from particles generated relative to points on the respective wave line. Each wave sheet may move separately from an underlying wave that gave rise to the wave sheet, allowing the wave sheet to fall and break, creating a realistic appearance. As a falling wave sheet collides with the underlying wave or water surface, free particles may be generated to simulation spray visible on a real breaking wave.

Real-time breaking waves for shallow water simulations

One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a technique for computing two-way rigid body coupling in a two-dimensional height field simulation, such as a shallow water simulation. Coupling from a rigid body to a fluid is computed using fluid displacement of the body in each grid cell. The body is projected onto a simulation plane to determine which grid cells are covered by the body. Fluid displacement from the body is computed for each grid cell based on displacement within a corresponding vertical column of fluid. Fluid displacement is distributed to neighboring grid cells prior to a height field computation. Coupling from the fluid to the rigid body is computed by integrating forces imparted on the body by the fluid at each grid cell. The integrated forces are used to compute a new position for the body in a subsequent simulation time step.

Two-way rigid body coupling in shallow water simulations

A method of simulating a deformable object comprises modeling deformable elasticity for the object by defining an actual shape and a goal shape and pulling points in the goal shape towards corresponding points in the goal shape.

Disclosed is a method of generating a three-dimensional (3D) surface defined by a boundary of a 3D point cloud. The method comprises generating density and depth maps from the 3D point cloud, constructing a 2D mesh from the depth and density maps, transforming the 2D mesh into a 3D mesh, and rendering 3D polygons defined by the 3D mesh.

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Stäfa, Switzerland

Matthias Müller-Fischer