A practical octree liquid simulator with adaptive surface resolution

Abstract

We propose a new adaptive liquid simulation framework that achieves highly detailed behavior with reduced implementation complexity. Prior work has shown that spatially adaptive grids are efficient for simulating large-scale liquid scenarios, but in order to enable adaptivity along the liquid surface these methods require either expensive boundary-conforming (re-)meshing or elaborate treatments for second order accurate interface conditions. This complexity greatly increases the difficulty of implementation and maintainability, potentially making it infeasible for practitioners. We therefore present new algorithms for adaptive simulation that are comparatively easy to implement yet efficiently yield high quality results. First, we develop a novel staggered octree Poisson discretization for free surfaces that is second order in pressure and gives smooth surface motions even across octree T-junctions, without a power/Voronoi diagram construction. We augment this discretization with an adaptivity-compatible surface tension force that likewise supports T-junctions. Second, we propose a moving least squares strategy for level set and velocity interpolation that requires minimal knowledge of the local tree structure while blending near-seamlessly with standard trilinear interpolation in uniform regions. Finally, to maximally exploit the flexibility of our new surface-adaptive solver, we propose several novel extensions to sizing function design that enhance its effectiveness and flexibility. We perform a range of rigorous numerical experiments to evaluate the reliability and limitations of our method, as well as demonstrating it on several complex high-resolution liquid animation scenarios.