Tissu

Tissu is a C++ cloth simulation SDK designed to integrate seamlessly into Digital Content Creation (DCC) tools such as Blender. It was developed to make high-fidelity cloth simulation as accessible as possible for technical artists and developers.

By combining a high-performance C++ core with a flexible Python API, Tissu lets you script complex simulations with the simplicity of Python and the velocity of C++.

Table of Contents

• Features
• How To Use
• Real-time Viewer
• Requirements
• Supported Operating Systems
• Build and Installation
• Development and Testing
• Technical Documentation
• License

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Features

Tissu includes the following features:

• IO

  • Alembic exportation (.abc)
  • Wavefront .obj importation and exportation
  • State serialization (.tissu)
  • Scene loader and exporter (.json)
  • Material presets loader (.json)

• Physics (XPBD Solver)

  • Distance constraint
  • Bending constraint
  • Volume constraint
  • Pin constraint
  • Stitch Constraint
  • Broad-phase collision detection via Spatial Hash
  • Sphere, capsule and plane colliders
  • Mesh colliders
  • Kinematic Colliders
  • Self-collision detection
  • Gravity force
  • Aerodynamic force

• Python API

  • Full simulation scripting via tissu Python package
  • Event scheduling

Coming Soon

Features planned for future releases:

• USD exportation

The ultimate goal of Tissu is to become a Blender add-on.

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How To Use

Let's script a cloth falling onto a sphere collider. The following example demonstrates how to set up a simulation, add constraints, schedule events, and export the result.

from tissu import Simulation

# 1. Initialize the simulation environment
sim = Simulation(substeps=10, iterations=3, thickness=0.05)

# 2. Create a cloth grid
curtain = sim.create_grid(
    name="curtain",
    rows=80,
    cols=80,
    spacing=0.05,
    material="silk"
)

# Pin the top corners to initially hold the curtain in place
curtain.pin_top_corners()

# 3. Add a sphere collider
# (name, initial position, radius, friction)
ball = sim.add_sphere('ball', [2.0, 0.0, 0.0], 1.0, 0.5)


# 4. Schedule an event: Unpin the curtain at frame 40 so it falls
@sim.on_frame(40)
def unpin(sim):
    curtain.unpin()


# 5. Run the simulation and export the result directly to Alembic
output = "data/animations/cloth_on_sphere.abc"
sim.bake_alembic(
    filepath=output,
    start_frame=1,
    end_frame=240,
    fps=60
)

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Real-time Viewer

Tissu comes with a built-in OpenGL viewer for real-time visualization. If you install Tissu with viewer support, you can preview your simulation before baking.

Instead of calling sim.bake_alembic(), simply launch the interactive viewer.

sim.view()

The viewer includes an integrated ImGui control panel to manage the simulation on the fly. From here, you can:

• Load Scenes, Materials, and Physics presets
• Adjust Shader and World parameters
• Tune Solver parameters in real-time
• Monitor performance statistics

Keybindings

• G : Take a state snapshot (.tissu files)
• S : Take a geometry snapshot (.obj files)
• R : Reset the simulation
• Space : Play / Pause the simulation
• Left Click : Grab and interact with particles manually

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Requirements

These dependencies must be installed on your system before building the project:

• Cmake ($\ge$ 3.20)
• C++ Compiler with C++17 support (GCC, Clang, or MSVC)
• OpenMP

Python Requirements

To build and use tissu, you need:

• Python ($\ge$ 3.12)
• Build Tools: setuptools $\ge$ 61.0, wheel
• Packages: mypy, numpy, tqdm, pytest

Python dependencies are automatically handled if you install the package via pip install .

Fetched Dependencies (Core)

These dependencies are automatically downloaded and built by CMake via FetchContent:

• Eigen (3.4.0)
• tinyobjloader
• nlohmann/json (v3.11.3)
• pybind11 (v2.13.6)
• Alembic (1.8.11)
• Imath
• GoogleTest (v1.15.2) - For testing
• Google Benchmark (v1.9.1) - For benchmarking

Standalone Viewer Requirements (Optional)

If the build includes the standalone viewer (TISSU_BUILD_VIEWER=ON), the following additional dependencies apply:

System Requirements:

• OpenGL (System graphics libraries)
• Threads (Standard OS threading support)

Fetched Dependencies (Handled by CMake):

• GLFW (3.3.8)
• GLAD (v2.0.8, Core 4.6)
• ImGui (v1.91.5 - Docking branch)

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Supported Operating Systems

• Linux: Supported and tested (On Fedora)
• macOS: Tested
• Windows: Supported and tested.

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Build and Installation

1. Clone Repository

Cloning the repository is as simple as

git clone https://github.com/evanrock520-ciencias/Tissu.git
cd Tissu

2. Compile the SDK

Build the shared library and the standalone viewer using our build script.

python scripts/build.py

3. Install Tissu

To import the library in your scripts, install the tissu package with pip:

pip install .

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Development and Testing

Tissu includes a test suite for both C++ and Python

• C++ Tests: Powered by Google Test (tests/)
• Python Tests: Powered by Pytest (tests/python/).
• Benchmarks: Powered by Google Benchmark (benchmarks/).

To run all tests, you can use the test script:

python scripts/test.py

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Technical Documentation

Technical documentation is currently a work in progress. It is expected to include:

• Architecture overview
• Physics & math reference
• Python API reference
• Build & development guide

Almost all pages may be incomplete or missing content.

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License

This project is licensed under the Apache 2.0 License - see the LICENSE file for details.

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