[SIGGRAPH 2024] Vertex Block Descent

We present Vertex Block Descent (VBD), the NEXT simulator.
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Project Page:
https://ankachan.github.io/Projects/V...
Paper:
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2403.06321
Code:
https://github.com/AnkaChan/Gaia
We introduce vertex block descent, a block coordinate descent solution for
the variational form of implicit Euler through vertex-level Gauss-Seidel
iterations. It operates with local vertex position updates that achieve reductions in global variational energy with maximized parallelism. This forms a
physics solver that can achieve numerical convergence with unconditional
stability and exceptional computation performance. It can also fit in a given
computation budget by simply limiting the iteration count while maintaining
its stability and superior convergence rate.
We present and evaluate our method in the context of elastic body dynamics, providing details of all essential components. Then, we discuss how it can
be used for other simulation problems, including particle-based simulations
and rigid bodies.