Realistic Fire Simulation: A Survey

As fire is one of the basic elements of nature, realistic fire simulation plays a significant role in fire control, film special effects, military emulation, and virtual reality. Fire simulation has been being an eternal theme in the field of computer graphics, because of the anisotropic shape and complex physical mechanism of the fire. This paper presents a survey on the development of flame simulation, with a detailed introduction to the different kinds of methods applied in the field. The methods can be classified into several different kind, mainly include texture mapping method, particle system method, mathematical physics-based method, cellular automation method, image based tomographic reconstruction, and other methods. This paper analyzes the performance of different methods from real-time, reality, spatio-temporal complexity, edit ability, and interactivity. Finally, in connection with issues in the present research and possible future direction of development, the paper puts forth a number of theoretical and technical problems, hoping they can be resolved in the future.