Vortex Methods for Fluid Simulation

Recently, it has been published a research on vorticity methods with very promising results. The authors state that "vortex methods have not been developed yet to the level of other techniques for fluid simulation in computer graphics".
In their work, they try to solve vorticity flow equations to produce highly detailed visual fluid simulations. Here are the results: https://www.ruor.uottawa.ca/fr/bitstream/handle/10393/23647/Vines_Neuwirth_Mauricio_Alfredo_2013_video.mov?sequence=5

As in the previous post, this work is focused on 3D elements; but still can be of interest if it can be applicable into a 2D world.

First steps on interactive fluids

My Innovation and Professional Development module requires each student to do some research in a specific topic and then try to find ways to improve the techniques used in it. In my case, I chose working with  fluid dynamics (particles, liquids, gases, etc.), in particular I wanted to focus on 2D fluids.

The gap I saw is that there are two main different kind of real-time fluids in games: one is realistic but little interactive (mouse and screen boundaries)

The other kind of fluid is the opposite, physically interactive, but at the cost of being unrealistic:

After a long, deep and unsuccessful research, last week I finally found a piece of work that combined both realistic and interactive fluids using a newfangled technique called tall cell grids; the work is meant for 3D, but it might be helpful if the methodologies are not totally different from a flattened environment. Here's their demo:

NVIDIA Real-Time Raytracing

NVIDIA is a technology company very well known for its focus in computer graphics and GPU manufacturing. Thanks to their innovative attitude they achieved some months ago real-time raytracing; which is, according to many, the future of gaming graphics.

In my opinion, it is really a huge step that will visually enrich the way we play games. Here's the demonstration of the feature:

However, both gamers and developers must always remember that only good graphics don't make good games, but engaging gameplays or deep stories do.

OUYA!

OUYA was created in 2012 to open up the last closed game platform, the TV. The console allows players to have dozens of games (all of them free-to-play) accessible via internet through this Android-based machine. It also offers video / audio streaming and some other features.

The idea of making a console which offers plenty of free-to-play games (and only free-to-play) is very interesting. I think it will attract the attention of many users, who would not want to access a complete library of games paying only the console's prize? At first this is an advantage for developers as well, because their products would be accessed by many. However, I believe that this system might somehow collapse.

From my point of view, free-to-play games are not the only future; although they may have some advantages, having millions of choices available will end up with the "survival of the fittest", making only a few of them profitable. In the end, OUYA will offer little worth games.

The Green Light

Some years ago, Valve created a different way of publishing, selling and buying games. They created the platform Steam. It was a very innovative system which allowed, thanks to the internet, the possibility of self-publishing, something very advantageous for smaller companies and indie developers.

Less than half a year ago, another innovative idea arose within Steam and so Greenlight was born. The idea of this tool was giving players the chance to choose the games they wanted to play in Steam. Some people can see this as an advante for Valve, instead of having their own resources validating and selecting games, they let users decide. While this might be true, many other people see it as an opportunity (specially developers) to access the platform with more ease.

Personally, I think the concept is very groundbreaking and many other communities will soon emulate Valve, once again.

Hello World

Hello readers,

I am Miguel Garde, MProf student at Abertay University, Dundee. This blog will be used to track some innovative stuff related with technology, specially concerning video games and topics realted to particles and fluids systems.

The previous blog I had got lost in the depths of internet; it didn't have a very rich content, but I will try to rescue it from my memory and create some posts within the next few days.

Enjoy!