Close to Reality Simulation of Bulk Solids Using a Kind of 3D Cellular Automaton

The development of algorithms providing a close to reality simulation of dynamic virtual worlds made substantial technological progresses during the last decade — contrary to the close to reality simulation of bulk solids. Standard simulation methods like particle or rigid-body simulation are not applicable to this simulation problem because a large number of elements is needed for convincing simulation results which cannot be handled in real-time. In this paper we present a kind of 3-dimensional cellular automaton which can handle a large number of elements at the cost of a spatial discretization. This approach is combined with state of the art rigid body simulation techniques resulting in a close to reality simulation of bulk solids in real-time applications.