A semi-Lagrangian contouring method for fluid simulation

Abstract

In this sketch we present a semi-Lagrangian surface tracking method for use with fluid simulations. Our method maintains an explicit polygonal mesh that defines the surface, and an octree data structure that provides both a spatial index for the mesh and an efficient means for evaluating the signeddistance function away from the surface. At each time step the surface is reconstructed from an implicit function defined by the composition of backward advection and the previous signed-distance function. One of the primary advantages of this formulation is that it enables tracking of surface characteristics, such as color or texture coordinates, at negligible additional cost. We include several examples demonstrating that the method can be used as part of a fluid simulation to effectively animate complex and interesting fluid behaviors.