Split 1 ball into 2 small like metaballs

Hi! I want to simulate cell mitosis (cell division), especially like that

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Who know what is the best way to do it? Thanks in advance

 

There's no "best" way to do it.

You can either use image-space metaballs, like described in one of the DirectX samples for... I think it was DX9?

Or you could go full marching cubes algorithm on them and employ dynamic geometry, or you could look at "Metaball" article here:
http://developer.download.nvidia.com/SDK/10.5/direct3d/samples.html

Which will be DirectX -only.

Or you could just pre-render a video.

 

http://wiki.unity3d.com/index.php?title=MetaBalls

 

Obligatory warning:

All content on the wiki is under CC-BY-SA license, and as a result is unusable in most commercial projects.

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

 

Good point how about a shader based approach -> https://www.shadertoy.com/results?query=metaballs

 

I think at least some of those are image-space meta particles I mentioned as option #1. They have a problem of not being true 3d shapes. Depending on purposes of visualization this may or may not be a problem.

However examples like this:
https://www.shadertoy.com/view/ld2GRz

Make me think that another possible options is raymarching the metaparticles. This can be done in a pixel shader, because they're quite similar to distance fields.

 

Thanks a lot, guys!
I tried to make with meatballs you described above, but in my task I need to divide 1 human cell model into 2(with different organelles inside) and the I need to have possibility control both of them(must be 2 different objects).
I noticed that there are 4 ways to do it.
1. Metaballs, but I can't control balls
2. Make shader with alpha cutout, and start "birth" one cell from other by alpha control
3. Recalculate mesh like in that plugin https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/38054 , but I thanked it's very costs for Hololens
4. Maybe import animation from any 3D editor(Maya/C4D/3dMax)

 

Uh, you can.

You can set position of each ball, regardless of the method used.

Organelles will need to be done as separate objects in this case. Meaning the metaboall itself will be probably done as marching cubes or raymarching.

 

What you really need is a sticky fluid simulator, not sure when Unity will get one.

Nvidia PhysX Flex has one...

 

Ok, thanks guys. I will try and then will reply

 

Please do, and let us know about the project, if you're showing it anywhere. I'm very interested.

 

Ok, if we will make funny mitosis, it will be in project and I tell you. Small simple preview project video here

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