Granular Physics Simulation using C++ / OpenGL

Real-time 3D simulation of granular flow (sand) using Newtonian mechanics, written in C++ with OpenGL/GLUT rendering.

Built as part of a French Travail d'Initiative Personnelle Encadré (TIPE) — an independent research project in the French Classes Préparatoires curriculum.

Physics

• N-body particle simulation (n=2000 grains) with pairwise collision detection
• Verlet-like integration via matrix state representation: position, velocity, acceleration stored as glm::fmat3
• Gravity, damping, wind noise, sand-sand friction, boundary constraints
• Inclined board collision with configurable angle and damping

Stack

Layer	Technology
Language	C++17
Math	GLM (header-only)
Rendering	OpenGL / GLUT (freeglut)
Build	CMake + just

Build

Dependencies: cmake, just, freeglut, libGL, libGLU.

NixOS / Nix:

nix develop
just run

Ubuntu / Debian:

sudo apt install cmake freeglut3-dev libgl-dev libglu-dev
just run

macOS:

brew install cmake just
just run  # GLUT is provided by the system

Controls

Key	Action
w/a/s/d	Move camera
space / z	Camera up / down
x / c	Rotate board
e	Toggle debug output
esc	Quit

Authors

Marc Partensky, Valentin Colin