XPI Simulation has recently demonstrated real time deformable terrain as the latest feature to be added to its Tempest software suite. Deformable terrain enables objects to interact with craters appearing as a result of explosions.

XPI has released its latest feature, dynamic terrain, as a result of an increasing number of requests from users. This is not just a visual effect but responds correctly to terrain following objects, range finding, special effects such as explosions, dust, smoke and lighting realistically simulating an impact.

Each crater is generated by the user specifying the point of impact causing Tempest to dynamically re-triangulate the terrain mesh in the surrounding area.

The newly uncovered surface of the ground is automatically draped with a new texture. The user can also specify parameters such as radius and granularity to give the required size and regularity of the crater.

The main advantage of this implementation is that it will work with virtually any database structure and even with large area paging databases.