Zibra Smoke & Fire Glossary

Even if you are well-versed in various visual effects and fluid simulations, delving into Zibra Liquid, Zibra Smoke & Fire, and Zibra Effects may present you with new terms.

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This is the Zibra Smoke & Fire Glossary, designed to familiarize you with the specific terminology used in our solution for the creation of volumetric effects of real-time simulated smoke and fire. 

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As our product evolves, this glossary will be updated with the latest terms and features

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Manipulator — A component that interacts with the simulation in various ways. Different types of manipulators have specific functionalities and parameters. 

Collider — A type of manipulator that enables collision with simulation. This manipulator is essential for adding realism to the simulation, as it allows elements like smoke and fire to collide with objects and surfaces within the simulated environment. 

Emitter — A manipulator that emits fluid into the simulation. In the case of Smoke & Fire simulation, it emits smoke and fuel at a set temperature.

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Void — A manipulator designed for precise control in fluid dynamics. It operates by creating pressure within an area defined by a Signed Distance Field (SDF), allowing for targeted manipulation of these elements. The Void manipulator also controls the rate of velocity decay, determining how quickly smoke and fire lose their speed within the influenced zone. Additionally, it regulates color decay, affecting how rapidly the color intensity of the smoke or fire changes.

Detector — A manipulator that detects fluid in the simulation. In the case of Zibra Smoke & Fire, it detects the amount of smoke, fuel, and heat. It can also position a point light in the center of fire emission to create the effect of fire illumination.

Force Field — A manipulator that applies force to fluid.

Simulation Grid — A grid that stores information about the simulation state. Higher grid resolution increases the simulation quality but decreases performance and also consumes more VRAM. When selecting a simulation volume game object, you’ll see a preview of the grid resolution.

SDFs

SDF (Signed Distance Field) — In our simulations, this is the component that represents the shape of a manipulator. Each manipulator must have a shape to function, so each manipulator requires an SDF component.

Analytic SDF  — A component that represents a simple shape, like a sphere, box, capsule, etc.

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Neural SDF — A component that represents the shape of a complex static mesh. Neural SDFs use a proprietary representation and need to be generated beforehand for use.

Neural SDF representation — Compressed data generated for a Neural SDF containing the shape of a static mesh. It can only be generated in the editor, and the generation process occurs on Zibra AI’s servers. This data is decompressed on the fly, exactly when the simulation needs it, so that it’s stored in a compressed form in the VRAM. This allows for complex colliders in real-time simulations, which would otherwise require too much computational power.

Skinned mesh SDF — A representation of an animated skeletal mesh. 

Invert SDF — An option that allows you to invert the shape of an SDF. For example, a collider with this option enabled will only allow fluid inside of it.

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‍Visualize scene SDF — An option to visualize the shape of manipulators. It can be used for debugging.