Verlets fluttering in the wind

December 29, 2008 7:34 PM

Cloth Physics Simulation
posted by Brandon Blatcher (24 comments total)

Pretty realistic sway! Impressive.
posted by Khazk at 7:43 PM on December 29, 2008

That's one stretchy piece of spandex! It would be interesting to try out different "fibers" which would be more or less likely to stretch versus tear, as well as wet and dry versions. Of course, that would also be a hell of a lot more programming.
posted by maudlin at 8:14 PM on December 29, 2008

Detach the points and hold down the down arrow key and you'll feel like you're watching a clothes dryer. Zippy the Pinhead approves.

Anyway, second vote for different "fibers". And something to keep it from bouncing/jittering randomly on the ground when it should just be lying there still.
posted by BaxterG4 at 8:27 PM on December 29, 2008

here's my not so polished example, complete with z-sorting errors. (hint: everything looks better as a wireframe..) source in as3 if anyone is interested.
posted by localhuman at 8:33 PM on December 29, 2008 [4 favorites]

Ah, constrained particles, is there anything you can't do?
posted by The Power Nap at 8:38 PM on December 29, 2008

localhuman, that's certainly a damn pretty one! Because of the pattern, it feels more like super-stretchy lace to me than spandex. It looks especially nice when you take one end and try to twirl it like a skipping rope.
posted by maudlin at 8:40 PM on December 29, 2008

Wow. This is cool.

What's cooler is that we can play with it within an internet browser. 10 years ago that would have been unthinkable!

I LOVE IT!
posted by AzzaMcKazza at 8:43 PM on December 29, 2008 [1 favorite]

I tried tying it in a knot, but it doesn't have collision detection.
posted by dunkadunc at 8:53 PM on December 29, 2008

http://bullet.googlecode.com/files/Bullet-2.71-Demos-win32.zip
Bullet physics engine demos (Windows, ~3mb). Run "ReleaseAllBulletDemos.exe" for more physics demos than you can shake a stick at. The 'SoftBody volume' demo is especially fun.
posted by Pyry at 8:58 PM on December 29, 2008 [4 favorites]

Can't roll it up.
posted by Pants! at 9:00 PM on December 29, 2008

thanks a bunch maudlin, I've never really shown that at all because I'm pretty sure it sucks. ah well. anyways, the idea about making different kinds of fibers is interesting. Physics simulations can get kind of weird, and I remember lowering the gravity vector to make things less springy, but then things get all swimmy and not cool.

I do really like the idea of making it tear-able, though, I may have to work that one out. I had been aiming at making a trampoline type game, but got side-tracked by that year, what was it? oh yeah, 2008.
posted by localhuman at 9:06 PM on December 29, 2008

Ha! localhuman, I just found out that it also makes an excellent, albeit frustrating, cat toy. There may be commercial applications for this little project.
posted by maudlin at 9:26 PM on December 29, 2008

I like the fan -- you can pretend you're drying off a superhero's cape...
posted by Alexandra Kitty at 10:13 PM on December 29, 2008

Ah, constrained particles, is there anything you can't do?

The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind.
posted by Tube at 10:14 PM on December 29, 2008 [6 favorites]

The paper linked to from the post's link is really cool, and demonstrates a really neat idea that I wanted to do for my own physics engine, but wasn't sure how: make velocity implicit from where you are now and where you were last frame. This helps objects move more believably.
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 10:23 PM on December 29, 2008

Cool,

be nice if you could simulate the flutter of a flag though, it's missing that.
posted by dibblda at 11:21 PM on December 29, 2008

The advanced version has walls on all six sides. Inside, the cloth is simultaneously blowing and staying still, until we open the box and observe it.
posted by crapmatic at 11:23 PM on December 29, 2008

I love the future.
posted by Pope Guilty at 12:13 AM on December 30, 2008 [1 favorite]

be nice if you could simulate the flutter of a flag though, it's missing that.

Rotate the cube so the fan is on the left.
Move the pins to the left side of the cube.
Turn on fan.
posted by MtDewd at 12:50 AM on December 30, 2008

I made it into a ribbon dancer.
posted by Faux Real at 3:20 AM on December 30, 2008

WHACKY WAVING INFLATABLE ARM FLAILING TUBE MAN!
posted by jscott at 4:08 AM on December 30, 2008

Cloth physics in action!
posted by Pollomacho at 4:47 AM on December 30, 2008

I can't fold sheets properly in sim, either, it seems.
posted by NikitaNikita at 8:07 AM on December 30, 2008

This needs a virtual cat.
posted by jquinby at 8:22 AM on December 30, 2008 [3 favorites]