Systems and method for visualization of fluids

1. A method for simulating and visualizing an interaction between an object and a falling fluid, comprising:

simulating the falling fluid as a two-dimensional plane;

rendering a first one-dimensional depth buffer and a second one-dimensional depth buffer, the first and second depth buffers corresponding to current depth information for, respectively, a top surface and a bottom surface of the object;

rendering values of a first current simulation texture for the top surface of the object, wherein for a given frame each of the first current simulation texture values is set to one of: a corresponding value of the first depth buffer and a corresponding, velocity-offset value of the previous frame's first simulation texture;

rendering values of a second current simulation texture for the bottom surface of the object, wherein for the given frame each of the second current simulation texture values is set to one of: a corresponding value of the second depth buffer and a corresponding, velocity-offset value of a previous frame's second simulation texture; and

rendering a visible fluid mesh in the two-dimensional plane based on the current simulation textures.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

rendering a splash texture at the location of the first current simulation texture.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:

moving the splash texture from a position at the bottom of the two-dimensional plane to a position on the upper surface of the object.

4. The method claim 2 , wherein the splash texture is positioned by a vertex texture fetch.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the depth information for the top surface and the bottom surface is in relation to a top edge of the two-dimensional plane.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the fluid mesh is not rendered at any location between the first simulation texture and the second simulation texture.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the velocity used to offset the values of the previous frame's first and second simulation textures approximates the effect of gravity.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the rendering of the first current simulation texture values includes determining which of (a) the corresponding value of the first depth buffer and (b) the corresponding, velocity-offset value of the previous frame's first simulation texture is closer to the top of the two-dimensional plane.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the rendering of the first current simulation texture values further includes setting each of the first current simulation texture values to whichever of (a) the corresponding value of the first depth buffer and (b) the corresponding, velocity-offset value of the previous frame's first simulation texture is determined to be closer to the top of the two-dimensional plane.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the rendering of the second current simulation texture values includes determining whether the previous frame's corresponding first simulation texture value has reached the bottom of the two-dimensional plane.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the rendering of the second current simulation texture values further includes setting each of the second current simulation texture values to one of: (a) the corresponding value of the first depth buffer if the previous frame's corresponding first simulation texture value has reached the bottom of the two-dimensional plane and (b) the corresponding, velocity-offset value of the previous frame's second simulation texture if the previous frame's corresponding first simulation texture value has not reached the bottom of the two-dimensional plane.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the rendering of the visible fluid mesh includes determining which pixels of the fluid mesh would fall between the first current simulation texture and the second current simulation texture when the fluid mesh is mapped to the two-dimensional plane.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the rendering of the visible fluid mesh further includes rendering only the pixels of the fluid mesh that are not determined to fall between the first current simulation texture and the second current simulation texture.

14. A computer-readable storage medium encoded with instructions configured to be executed by a processor, the instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the performance of a method for simulating and visualizing an interaction between an object and a falling fluid, comprising:

simulating the falling fluid as a two-dimensional plane;

rendering a first one-dimensional depth buffer and a second one-dimensional depth buffer, the first and second depth buffers corresponding to current depth information for, respectively, a top surface and a bottom surface of the object in relation to an upper edge of the two-dimensional plane;

rendering values of a first current simulation texture for the top surface of the object, wherein for a given frame each of the first current simulation texture values is set to either a corresponding value of the first depth buffer or a corresponding, velocity-offset value of a previous frame's first simulation texture;

rendering values of a second current simulation texture for the bottom surface of the object, wherein for the given frame each of the second current simulation texture values is set to either a corresponding value of the second depth buffer or a corresponding, velocity-offset value of the previous frame's second simulation texture; and

rendering a visible fluid mesh in the two-dimensional plane based on the current simulation textures.

15. A system for simulating and visualizing an interaction between an object and a falling fluid, comprising:

a processor in communication with a memory;

the memory being configured to store a data structure representing a two-dimensional surface, first and second one-dimensional depth buffers, and first and second one-dimensional current simulation textures;

the processor being configured to simulate the falling fluid as a two-dimensional plane;

the processor being configured to render the first one-dimensional depth buffer and the second one-dimensional depth buffer to correspond to current depth information for, respectively, a top surface and a bottom surface of the object in relation to an upper edge of the two-dimensional plane;

the processor being configured to render values of the first current simulation texture for the top surface of the object, wherein for a given frame each of the first current simulation texture values is set to either a corresponding value of the first depth buffer or a corresponding, velocity-offset value of a previous frame's first simulation texture;

the processor being configured to render values of the second current simulation texture for the bottom surface of the object, wherein for the given frame each of the second current simulation texture values is set to either a corresponding value of the second depth buffer or a corresponding, velocity-offset value of the previous frame's second simulation texture; and

the processor being configured to render a visible fluid mesh in the two-dimensional plane based on the current simulation textures.

16. The system of claim 15 , wherein the processor is a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU).

17. The system of claim 16 , wherein the rendering of the first current simulation texture and the rendering of the second current simulation texture occurs at least to some degree in parallel on the processor.

18. A method for simulating and visualizing an interaction between an object and a falling fluid, comprising:

simulating the falling fluid as a two-dimensional plane;

rendering a splash texture at the bottom of the two-dimensional plane; and

moving the splash texture to an upper surface of the object intersecting the two-dimensional plane.

19. The method of claim 18 , wherein the splash texture is positioned by a vertex texture fetch.

20. The method of claim 19 , wherein a lookup value for the vertex texture fetch is set to a location at which the splash effect was originally spawned.

21. The method of claim 18 , further comprising:

rendering a one-dimensional depth buffer corresponding to current depth information for a top surface of the object in relation to an upper edge of the two-dimensional plane;

rendering values of a current simulation texture for the top surface of the object, wherein for a given frame each of the current simulation texture values is set to either a corresponding value of the first depth buffer or a corresponding, velocity-offset value of the previous frame's simulation texture; and

moving the splash texture to the location of the current simulation texture.

22. A system for simulating and visualizing an interaction between an object and a falling fluid, comprising:

a processor in communication with a memory;

the memory being configured to store a data structure representing a two-dimensional surface, and a splash texture;

the processor being configured to simulate the falling fluid as a two-dimensional plane;

the processor being configured to render the splash texture at the bottom of the two-dimensional plane; and

the processor being configured to move the splash texture to an upper surface of the object intersecting the two-dimensional plane.

23. The system of claim 22 , wherein the processor is a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU).

24. The system of claim 22 , wherein processor is configured to position the splash texture using a vertex texture fetch.

25. The system of claim 24 , wherein the processor is configured to set a lookup value for the vertex texture fetch to a location at which the splash effect was originally spawned.

26. The system of claim 22 , wherein:

the memory is further configured to store a data structure representing a one-dimensional depth buffer, and a one-dimensional current simulation texture;

the processor is configured to render the one-dimensional depth buffer to correspond to current depth information for a top surface of the object in relation to an upper edge of the two-dimensional plane;

the processor is configured to render values of a current simulation texture for the top surface of the object, wherein for a given frame each of the current simulation texture values is set to either a corresponding value of the first depth buffer or a corresponding, velocity-offset value of the previous frame's simulation texture; and

the processor is configured to move the splash texture to the location of the current simulation texture.