When designers select a method
for simulating water and waves, they have to choose either fast computation or
realistic effects; state-of-the-art methods are only able to optimize one or
the other. Now, a method developed by researchers at the Institute of Science
and Technology Austria (IST Austria) and NVIDIA bridges this gap. Their
simulation method can reproduce complex interactions with the environment and
tiny details over huge areas in real time. Moreover, the basic construction of
the method allows graphics designers to easily create artistic effects.
Current water wave simulations
are based on one of two available methods. Fourier-based methods are efficient
but cannot model complicated interactions, such as water hitting shore of an
island. Numerical methods, on the other hand, can simulate a wide range of such
effects, but are much more expensive computationally. Achieving all of this
required ingenuity, as well as a deep understanding of the basic physics
involved. We encoded the waves with different physical parameters than people
previously used.
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