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GPUGems - Chapter 38. Fast Fluid Dynamics Simulation on the GPU

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Mark J. Harris's GPU Gems Chapter 38 explains fast, stable 2D fluid simulation on the GPU. NVIDIA hosts the full anthology chapter online, with CD demos and source.

It extends Jos Stam's stable-fluids method through incompressible Navier-Stokes on a grid: advection, diffusion, forces, and pressure projection. Section 38.3 implements the pipeline as Cg fragment programs with state in textures and Jacobi Poisson solves on slab passes.

Readers need college calculus, differential equations, and finite-difference comfort. Flow stays in a 2D box with no-slip walls; free surfaces and 3D appear mainly in Section 38.5 extensions.

Sections cover math background, GPU implementation, and applications such as dye, smoke, and buoyancy.

Widely cited with Stam 1999 as a standard GPU grid-fluid reference, often ported via compute shaders or render targets in engine-agnostic pipelines.