Implicit midpoint integration and adaptive damping for efficient cloth simulation

Implicit integration methods have contributed to large performance enhancements in the field of simulation of particle-system mechanical models. While Backward Euler and BDF-2 methods are now widely used for cloth simulation applications, the Implicit Midpoint method is often overlooked, because of its poor stability properties. It is however as simple to implement as Backward Euler, and offers significantly better accuracy and even shorter computation times. Starting with a study of the stability properties of these integration methods, we will find out how moderate viscous damping may efficiently restore stability of Implicit Midpoint integration method. An extension is also proposed for BDF-2 methods. Comparative examples demonstrate the benefits of this approach.