cybereality I mean in real time. Like a realistic game, where you could pick up a glass of water, and the entire water is simulated as hydrogen and oxygen molecules. And then you could drop the glass, and the glass would shatter, based on the physical properties, and each drop of water would be simulated.
Water has surface tension and maximum drop size. If we talk about modeling the behavior of water, it is enough to imagine it as a bunch of balls, which is similar to SPH. The amount of computation is large, but much less than calculating each molecule.
Megalomaniak You could probably use SPH
Actually, proper simplification is the basis of modeling. This applies to my project to the fullest extent. I am now trying to understand the level of simplification that I can achieve.
Megalomaniak In your case you could probably implement the sim in a separate thread and periodically sync result with main thread to update it. Do the sim then as a lower priority on cpu. Say update the result once per in-game year or such.
Yeah, I have a lot of things that are going to be done in parallel threads. Only the minimum necessary part will be displayed on the screen. Updating the landscape can happen when the seasons change, which is not very noticeable and close to reality. For example, rivers usually change channel in the spring.