Solidify fluid into a mesh? (Think concrete)

[Apophix]

Hi - I haven't purchased the asset yet, I want to know if this is something I can do with it before I do. I would like to have the player pour some liquid "cement" into a container and then eventually solidify the fluid into a mesh. I would like to know if this is possible, and if so, how straightforward would it be? Thanks.

[josemendez]

Hi - I haven't purchased the asset yet, I want to know if this is something I can do with it before I do. I would like to have the player pour some liquid "cement" into a container and then eventually solidify the fluid into a mesh. I would like to know if this is possible, and if so, how straightforward would it be? Thanks.

Hi there,

This is not doable, at least not out of the box. Turning a fluid into a solid is done by increasing its viscosity a lot, but to maintain stability you'd need a very small timestep, well beyond any realtime threshold and into the minutes/frame realm. Consider how long it takes to simulate a really viscous (not even semi-solid) liquid in an offline fluid sim:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oa43MoGSrRI

The best approach to do this efficiently in realtime would be to generate a 3D mesh from the fluid particles once they reach a steady state (using the marching cubes algorithm, for instance) and then turning it into a regular rigidbody. Note this would provide an instant transition from liquid to solid, no hardening process. Also this is something you must implement yourself, as it is outside the scope of any fluid simulator.