Eulerian-on-Lagrangian Cloth Simulation

Abstract

We resolve the long-standing problem of simulating the contact-mediated interaction of cloth and sharp geometric features by introducing an Eulerian-on-Lagrangian (EOL) approach to cloth simulation. Unlike traditional Lagrangian approaches to cloth simulation, our EOL approach permits bending exactly at and sliding over sharp edges, avoiding parasitic locking caused by over-constraining contact constraints. Wherever the cloth is in contact with sharp features, we insert EOL vertices into the cloth, while the rest of the cloth is simulated in the standard Lagrangian fashion. Our algorithm manifests as new equations of motion for EOL vertices, a contact-conforming remesher, and a set of simple constraint assignment rules, all of which can be incorporated into existing state-of-the-art cloth simulators to enable smooth, inequality-constrained contact between cloth and objects in the world.