METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PERFORMING REAL-TIME COMPUTER ANIMATION

A method and apparatus for performing real-time computer animation of data used to simulate physical phenomena is disclosed. The animation system generates floating point geometrical element simulation data and byte width variable simulation data with a processing unit. The floating point geometrical simulation data is supplied to a graphics processor which generates element transformation matrices. The variable simulation data is applied to each of the element transformation matrices by the graphics processor to generate a plurality of layer transformation matrices. The layer transformation matrices are then applied to a stock piece-wise polygonal surface to generate a plurality of layer elements. The layer elements are displayed on a graphics display unit in real-time in the form of glyphs which animate the physical phenomena.