2015, Lua + Roblox
This was an exploration of a “fluid” system using a cellular automata approach on a grid. Although not physically accurate the results could be compelling.
Water Automata
Each cell keeps track of it’s height, and fluid quantity
then every step for each cell that’s adjacent and lower than it’s fluid height a proportional amount is distributed.
This is pretty convincing at first glance, but has some issues. For instance notice that there’s no ripples.
Run off
Although the small details of the fluid are missing, it could still look pretty good flowing down hills.
The final state would also be quite believable, as it would tend towards the lowest potential energy .
Different fluid qualities
By changing the amount of fluid exchanged per time step different viscosities can be simulated.
This was a fun first step into fluid simulation, and although inaccurate would pave the way for an internship doing static fluid pressure calculations.
In the future it would be fun to revisit and try and try to take a cellular approach again, but take things like pressure and flow into account.