Granular materials are very common in the everyday world. Media such as sand, soil, gravel, food stuffs, pharmaceuticals, etc. all have similar irregular flow since they are composed of numerous small solid particles. In video games, simulating these materials increases immersion and can be used for various game mechanics. Computationally, full scale simulation is not typically feasible except on the most powerful hardware and tends to be reduced in priority to favor other, more integral, gameplay features. Here we study the computational and qualitative aspects of side profile flow of sand-like particles using cellular automata (CA). Our CA uses a standard square lattice that updates via a custom, modified Margolus neighborhood. Each update occurs using a set of probabilistic transitions that can be tuned to simulate friction between particles. We focus on the look of the sandpile structure created from an hourglass shape over time using different transition probabilities and the computational impact of such a simulation.

中文翻译：

---

视频游戏中颗粒媒体的概率元胞自动机

颗粒材料在日常生活中非常普遍。沙子、土壤、砾石、食品、药品等介质都具有类似的不规则流动，因为它们是由许多小固体颗粒组成的。在视频游戏中，模拟这些材料可增加沉浸感，并可用于各种游戏机制。在计算上，除非在最强大的硬件上，否则全尺寸模拟通常是不可行的，并且倾向于优先考虑其他更完整的游戏功能。在这里，我们使用元胞自动机 (CA) 研究沙状颗粒侧剖面流的计算和定性方面。我们的 CA 使用标准方形格子，通过自定义的、修改过的 Margolus 邻域进行更新。每次更新都使用一组概率转换进行，这些转换可以调整以模拟粒子之间的摩擦。