Taking v = u + at, the final velocity is thus proportional to acceleration at any given time step. While the blobs are within the wax pool, we set their initial speeds to be close to 0. To simulate the impact of volume, pressure, and buoyant force that is proportional to volume (and thus velocity and density). We experimented with a variety of different equations to define our metaballs and eventually found that we got the best looking metaballs by modifying the equation from this To represent the wax blobs in our lava lamp, we utilized a system of circular metaballs. We also created a shaded version of the lava lamp using imaginary normals and a fake light source. To make our simulation visually appealing and interesting, we created a variety of wax and background color combinations and wax effects. To make our simulation more physically realistic, we utilize a temperature gradient to modify the size and speed of the wax blobs at different depths of the lava lamp. The wax objects in our simulation are represented using a system of metaballs, which allows for the smooth merging and divisions. Our program attempts to simulate the movement patterns of the wax blobs and the various interactions between them. In this project, we built a 2D lava lamp simulator on ShaderToy from scratch.
