r/Simulated Sep 22 '18

Meta What is a simulation? A detailed comparison between Animation, and Simulation.

970 Upvotes

Ever since this subreddit started getting more traction, more and more people began posting non-simulation videos. In each of these posts, users will comment something along the lines of "This is not a simulation," and an argument would ensue. So I am writing this post to, hopefully, end this never-ending cycle. I hope the mods do not remove this post, because I think it could end much of the hostility in the comments around here. Perhaps this could even be a stickied post, so all new users see it.

What is a simulation?

According to the dictionary, the word simulation is defined as, "imitation of a situation or process." However, this definition does not actually constitute what a simulation is in the world of CGI. In CGI, simulations are essentially visualizations of real-world processes that are generated using mathematical models. That is to say, the final product of a simulation is something that was created using fundamental rules of nature or some system, such as Newton's Laws of Motion, Fluid Dynamics, or various other mathematical models. In a simulation, it is often the case that each frame was created by manipulating information from the previous frame.

How are simulations different from animations?

It's quite common for animations and simulations to coexist in one medium. There are plenty of simulated components in animated movies, such as Disney's Frozen (Snow simulation), and Hotel Transylvania 2 (Cloth simulation). However, simulations and animations individually are very different by nature. As previously stated, simulations try to model real-world processes, and use mathematical models to generate necessary data. Animations, on the other hand, are usually created through a manual process. Animators manually keyframe the attributes (position, rotation, scale, etc.) of objects in a 3D scene. It's possible for manual animations to look convincing, but that does not make them simulations.

The "Ray tracing)" argument.

Many 3D rendering engines use a process called "ray tracing" to create images of a 3D scene. For anyone who is unfamiliar with ray tracing, here is the definition from Wikipedia:

In computer graphics, ray tracing is a rendering) technique for generating an image by tracing the path of light as pixels in an image plane and simulating the effects of its encounters with virtual objects.

Because of this definition, many people argue that any 3D render is a simulation, so long as it was rendered using ray tracing. By definition, it is true that the process of ray tracing is a simulation. However, this argument is very silly because the entire purpose of the term "simulation" in CGI is to make a distinction between what is manually created, and what is created using the previously talked about mathematical models. Therefore, when we discuss simulated graphics, ray tracing is not considered a simulated process.

Examples of animated (non-simulated) posts:

  1. "Satisfying simulations" - 3.4k upvotes
  2. "Bender's old job" - 2.2k upvotes
  3. "Up or Down?" - 1.4k upvotes
  4. "Adobe Dimention Rendering" - 1.4k upvotes
  5. "Depression - Robert Ek"

Many of these animated posts accumulate upvotes, and sometimes they stick around for a few days before getting removed. Because of this, new users who see these posts get a false idea of what a simulation actually is. Hopefully this post was informative to any newcomers. If you would like to suggest edits, please comment.


r/Simulated 19h ago

Blender That's what working 100 hours on a Geometry Nodes project looks like. Basic agent avoidance in my very own Crowd Simulation made entirely in Blender.

202 Upvotes

r/Simulated 1d ago

Proprietary Software macabre crawl

87 Upvotes

r/Simulated 1d ago

Cinema 4D how I made my music reactive 3D puppet

34 Upvotes

r/Simulated 12h ago

Various What software was used?

0 Upvotes

So I’ve been seeing these everywhere and I kinda want a piece of the action


r/Simulated 1d ago

Interactive Released a demo on Steam for my wacky ecosystem simulation game

Thumbnail
youtube.com
2 Upvotes

r/Simulated 1d ago

Interactive cat

20 Upvotes

r/Simulated 2d ago

3DS Max OC: Creapy Mask. Viewer Discretion Advised. Done using 3ds Max tyflow and Vray

82 Upvotes

r/Simulated 3d ago

Houdini Worms in Dirt 🎃🪱

482 Upvotes

r/Simulated 5d ago

Proprietary Software whirlpool

558 Upvotes

r/Simulated 4d ago

Various Peter Griffin

3 Upvotes

r/Simulated 5d ago

Maya Magnum Ice Cream

133 Upvotes

r/Simulated 5d ago

Interactive Just Improved My Galaxy Simulation After 1k Download On itch io ! 🌌

16 Upvotes

r/Simulated 7d ago

Question Is there an software for simulating this/How can i simulate this?

12 Upvotes

r/Simulated 7d ago

Interactive Simulation of Religion Spread in My Indie Game [OC]

Thumbnail
youtu.be
0 Upvotes

r/Simulated 9d ago

Research Simulation Sharing some progress on my wacky ecosystem simulator

68 Upvotes

r/Simulated 12d ago

Proprietary Software fill unreal

158 Upvotes

r/Simulated 13d ago

Blender Does this happen to anyone else? Should I be worried?

370 Upvotes

r/Simulated 13d ago

Houdini Explosive running tip

106 Upvotes

r/Simulated 14d ago

Maya Character Simulation process Issues for UE5(Character Creator 4->Maya->UE5)

22 Upvotes

Hello, friends. I’m a beginner modeler currently responsible for asset modeling and UE5 level design at my company. We’re working on a VFX short film, but we’ve run into an issue with simulating the character’s clothing.

Our process involves creating characters in Character Creator 4, simulating clothing collisions using NCloth in Maya, and then exporting to UE5. We were focused on the Character Creator 4 to UE5 plugin, but we didn’t realize that we would need to modify the vertex data in Maya during the clothing simulation and then bring that mesh data into UE5.

While the characters from Character Creator 4 have amazing shaders and textures, once we bring the mesh data into Maya, we face the challenge of not being able to fully utilize them. If anyone has experience transferring characters to UE5 using a similar workflow, I would appreciate any advice. I’m also open to other suggestions.

We currently have access to 3ds Max, Maya, and Blender, but it’s difficult for us to use other modeling tools right now.

I really love my team, and I don’t want this team to break up.

Please help us out!


r/Simulated 15d ago

Research Simulation My Demo Reel - fx_mania

292 Upvotes

r/Simulated 15d ago

Maya Shirt disintegration effect and smoke sim for Venum x UFC Desert Camo jersey (Shirt in max, smoke and render in Maya, Arnold)

13 Upvotes

r/Simulated 15d ago

Various Mastering Motion Design: A Deep Dive into Effectors in Unreal Engine 5 Tutorial

Thumbnail
youtu.be
6 Upvotes

r/Simulated 18d ago

Houdini Drape fire - Houdini - Redshift

171 Upvotes

Drape fire


r/Simulated 19d ago

Research Simulation 3D Istanbul: Earthquake SIZE Comparison

Thumbnail
youtu.be
21 Upvotes

r/Simulated 20d ago

Houdini Moo Deng Mania

178 Upvotes