Vortex-Based Fluid Simulation (Örvényalapú folyadékszimuláció)

A real-time 3D fluid simulation engine built in Rust using OpenGL Compute Shaders. This project was developed as a Bachelor's Thesis at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME).

Author: Jakab Martin
Supervisor: Dr. Szécsi László
Thesis Link: Diplomaterv Portál

Abstract

Modeling and understanding physical phenomena is a key area of computer graphics and engineering. Fluid simulation has seen many approaches, one of which is the vortex-based method. The advantage of this method is its ability to model complex flow phenomena with relatively low computational requirements, enabling real-time simulations.

This project implements a vortex particle method that handles:

1. Fluid-Boundary Interaction: Two methods were introduced to handle the interaction between the fluid and solid objects.
2. Remeshing/Particle Lifecycle: A system to maintain a uniform distribution of fluid particles using a lifecycle model known from particle systems.
3. Real-time Visualization: High-performance rendering of the simulation results.

Features

• Vortex Particle Method: Efficient simulation of fluid dynamics using vorticity.
• GPU Acceleration: Heavy physics calculations are offloaded to the GPU using OpenGL Compute Shaders (.comp files).
• Rust & OpenGL: Written in Rust for safety and performance, leveraging the glfw crate for windowing and raw OpenGL bindings for rendering.
• Interactive Camera: Navigate the 3D scene to view the simulation from any angle.

Prerequisites

• Rust Toolchain: Install from rustup.rs.
• OpenGL 4.3+: Ensure your graphics drivers are up to date (Compute Shaders require OpenGL 4.3 or higher).

Installation & Running

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/your-username/vortex-method-program.git
   cd vortex-method-program

2. Build and Run: It is highly recommended to run in release mode for smooth simulation performance:

   cargo run --release

Controls

The simulation typically features a free-flying camera:

• W / A / S / D: Move Camera (Forward/Left/Backward/Right)
• Mouse: Orientation/Look

Technical Architecture

The project is structured into several key modules:

• src/objects: Handles simulation entities like Particles, ActiveVorticies, and boundary meshes.
• src/structures: Defines core data structures like Vortex, Particle, and CubeGeometry.
• resources/shaders: Contains the GLSL shaders.
  • *.comp: Compute shaders for physics updates (vortex interaction, advection, etc.).
  • *.vert / *.frag: Shaders for rendering the particles and meshes.

License & Copyright

Copyright © BME Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics.
Refer to the Thesis Page for more details.