Simulating a Planet on the GPU: Part 1 (2022)
11 days ago
- #planet-simulation
- #game-development
- #compute-shaders
- The author expresses nostalgia for SimEarth and a desire for a modern version, leading them to start their own planet simulation project.
- Initial attempts used polygon-based approaches with Delaunay Triangulation and Voronoi Tessellation, but faced performance issues in Unity & C#.
- Switching to C++ and Vulkan proved too complex, prompting a return to Unity and exploration of GPU-based solutions.
- Compute shaders were explored to leverage GPU parallelism for simulating tectonic plates, though deformation remained a challenge.
- Inspiration from physical simulations led to considering Smoothed-Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) for realistic crust deformation.
- Implementing SPH with compute shaders was challenging but educational, highlighting the importance of memory optimization.
- Future goals include adding features like current visualization, air currents, precipitation, volcanic activity, and hardware optimization.
- The project is ongoing, with plans for a follow-up blog post and a downloadable version available.