Arenite: A Physics-based Sandstone Simulator

Abstract

We introduce Arenite, a novel physics-based approach for modeling sandstone structures. The key insight of our work is that simulating a combination of stress and multi-factor erosion enables the generation of a wide variety of sandstone structures observed in nature. We isolate the key shape-forming phenomena: multi-physics fabric interlocking, wind and fluvial erosion, and particle-based deposition processes. Complex 3D structures such as arches, alcoves, hoodoos, or buttes can be achieved by creating simple 3D structures with user-painted erodable areas and vegetation and running the simulation. We demonstrate the algorithm on a wide variety of structures, and our GPU-based implementation achieves the simulation in less than 5 minutes on a desktop computer for our most complex example.