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3d sculpting simulation using arduino to control particles

Discussion in 'Getting Started' started by zaupaniki, May 26, 2022.

  1. zaupaniki

    zaupaniki

    Joined:
    May 26, 2022
    Posts:
    1
    Hi everyone,

    This is my first post here, and hope I'm posting in the right place, sorry if not.
    I'm just a newbie with Unity, but have an idea and just want to know if what I'm planning to do is even possible.

    I'm working on a project that involves the use of wind, and my plan would be to use arduino to grab wind speed and wind direction and use those 2 parameters to control a particle system in Unity. I would then like to use this wind-influenced particle system to simulate erosion on a cube, hence sculpting the cube over time, and possibly in real-time.

    Is this plan even possible? As I said, I'm very new to the software, and although I do have some 3d modelling experience in blender I never worked on simulation in this way. Also, if you think there's better software to do this, I'm happy to listen, I couldn't find much documentation online.
     
  2. DimitriX89

    DimitriX89

    Joined:
    Jun 3, 2015
    Posts:
    551
    It is theoretically possible, though not supported out of the box and might be too much for a "newbie". I do not know if using a particle system to deform something is a good way. Perhaps instead launch low number of invisible rigid bodies with the same velocity, mass and drag settings, and use them for further calculations? And to "sculpt" a cube, there may be voxel-based destructible object plugins in Asset store
     
  3. Schneider21

    Schneider21

    Joined:
    Feb 6, 2014
    Posts:
    3,512
    I agree that this is a pretty ambitious project for someone with virtually no coding experience, but if you're passionate about it and don't mind learning, could still be fun (at least, "fun" in the way that most programming is).

    There are plenty of articles and videos about sending data to your PC/Unity app from a connected Arduino, so check those out and see how deep the water is. For the cube itself, a voxel representation is almost surely the way to go. Don't think that voxels have to look like Minecraft, though. You can smooth the edges and make things look much more natural, still. I'm not so sure about "real" realtime, since (as I'm sure you know) erosion from air is something that happens over a loooooong period of time, and you'll probably die before you see any significant change to your sim.