Real time dynamic fracture with volumetric approximate convex decompositions

Abstract

We propose a new fast, robust and controllable method to simulate the dynamic destruction of large and complex objects in real time. The common method for fracture simulation in computer games is to pre-fracture models and replace objects by their pre-computed parts at run-time. This popular method is computationally cheap but has the disadvantages that the fracture pattern does not align with the impact location and that the number of hierarchical fracture levels is fixed. Our method allows dynamic fracturing of large objects into an unlimited number of pieces fast enough to be used in computer games. We represent visual meshes by volumetric approximate convex decompositions (VACD) and apply user-defined fracture patterns dependent on the impact location. The method supports partial fracturing meaning that fracture patterns can be applied locally at multiple locations of an object. We propose new methods for computing a VACD, for approximate convex hull construction and for detecting islands in the convex decomposition after partial destruction in order to determine support structures.