Patent ID: 8489370

Claim:
A computer device for simulating a set of objects in interaction, comprising: a memory adapted to contain a tree representation of the set of objects wherein said tree representation includes nodes comprising leaf nodes representing objects and intermediate nodes representing articulations between its child nodes, in which each intermediate node is associated with dynamic data, geometric data and interaction data dependent on data of its child nodes wherein said interaction data represent forces applied to objects represented by said child nodes, and a simulation controller for actuating, in a repetitive cycle: a distributor of the interaction data relating to the objects and subsets of objects, a mechanism for updating the dynamic data, with a scan of the tree representation for nodes subject to interactions, as a function of the interaction data and geometric data in question, a mechanism for updating the geometric data, with a scan of the tree representation for nodes subject to interactions, as a function of the updated dynamic data, characterised in that the memory also comprises local interaction data that are associated with at least some of the intermediate nodes, wherein local interaction data associated with an intermediate node represent forces applied to objects represented by said child nodes by other objects represented by said child nodes, other than constraint forces due to interaction, via the articulations, between said objects and said other objects; the interaction data distributor comprises an interaction data updating mechanism, with a scan of the tree representation for nodes subject to interaction, in order to update an interaction data item of an intermediate node as a function of the local interaction data of the child nodes in question, wherein the local interaction data comprise an interaction list containing couples that denote locally interacting nodes, and the interaction data updating mechanism is configured to: update the data in the interaction list, and update the interaction data, on the basis of at least some of the data in the interaction list that have been updated.