A real-time deformable cutting method using two levels of linked voxels for improved decoupling between collision and rendering

Shiyu Jia, Weizhong Zhang, Guodong Wang, Zhenkuan Pan, Xiaokang Yu

Abstract: The linked voxel model is commonly used to simulate real-time interactive cutting of deformable objects. Previous methods use a single level of voxels and result in tight coupling between collision and rendering. In this paper, a novel method using two levels of voxels is proposed. The object surface mesh is divided into an interface mesh constructed on a fine level voxel grid and a cut surface mesh constructed on a coarse level voxel grid. Collision uses a collision proxy constructed on the coarse level voxel grid and is therefore decoupled from the rendering quality of the interface mesh. The only drawback of our method is that collision is still coupled to the rendering quality of the cut surface mesh. Simulation tests show that simulations using our method have higher frame rates than those using a single level of fine voxels, while achieving comparable rendering qualities for the interface meshes. Although the rendering qualities of the cut surface meshes are only comparable to those using a single level of coarse voxels, the rendering qualities of the boundary lines between different materials on the cut surface and the outer edges of the cut surface are better.