Undergrad I need to simulate clothing meshes for hanging garments

[AI_Messiah]

TL;DR

I don't need cloth simulation. I need to simulate clothing meshes. Made of triangles and I need an answer that someone with High School math can understand.

I don't need cloth simulation. I need to simulate clothing meshes. Made of triangles and I need an answer that someone with High School math can understand. I am actually using the time it takes for someone to answer to create a model with less geometry than the one I have been using. I want clothing that can be removed on a model that will be animated. I don't need stretching or wrinkles on my meshes, I just need gravity. I have an idea of how I could do it, but I don't know how to apply it. I will be using compute shaders for this (GPGPU). What I think I could do is push the vertices of the mesh outside the model and mark the ones that are loose, but how do I maintain the shape. then have another pass that iterates over the mesh in 2 dimensions and compare it with itself, but how do I start from the top and successively pass the vertices down. The clothing meshes will have a low poly count.

 

[berkeman]

TL;DR Summary: I don't need cloth simulation. I need to simulate clothing meshes. Made of triangles and I need an answer that someone with High School math can understand.

I don't need cloth simulation. I need to simulate clothing meshes.

It would be more polite if you would say "please" somewhere in your thread start.

Please show us what you have so far with your simulations. You can use "Attach files" to upload screenshots of your simulations so far.

 

[Baluncore]

Does the mesh have a specified mass per unit area, that can become tension in hanging fabric?
Is the cloth mesh fixed in dimension, like a Dacron sailboat sail, or is it elastic, like a stretchy knitted fabric?

You could look at the model from above and then lower the mesh as a sheet onto the model. At each step, there will be a line of nodes in contact between the model and the mesh. That line will be extended outwards in the mesh, and downwards over the model.

Any two known node points, on the model surface, can be extended down the surface of the model to find where the next node will lie. That can be done by finding the intersection of two spheres with the model surface. The radius of the spheres are the length of the mesh triangle edges, which forms a circular line of contact, that line penetrates the surface of the model at the 3D position of the new node. Maybe solve the 3D intersection, by searching the surface of the model, for the one point that is r1 and r2 from the previous two nodes, n1 and n2 respectively.

Where there is an overhang in the model, each new mesh node will hang in space below previously placed points, like a skirt, away from the surface. Wrinkles and pleats will form naturally, determined by the way the mesh hangs or falls.

 

[Chestermiller]

Can the fibers slide at the crossovers or are they locked?