How to simulate a water splash effect?

Question

I need to achieve the effect of a ball falling down into a pool then splashing in the water.

At first, I made a sensor to detect the collision between the ball and the water and then show the sprite of the spray. But it's hard to change the sprite according to the velocity of the ball and the angle between the ball and pool. So, I want to simulate the physical model of the water.

Now, what I can do is to add a particle system using Cocos2D to show the still water and add physical model to each particle. But, I don't think it is a good solution. Any other I can do it? Waiting for you help.

Answer 1

You could go for a full fluid physics solution, such as the one used in Pixel Junk Shooter (explained in details here).

But that's probably overkill for your needs. You're believing that simulating the physics would be easier than cheating a bit, but I think that doing a bit of research would make you reconsider your position.

What I would do is simply use the two infos you already have: scale and rotate your sprite animation (or particle emitter) depending on the speed and angle of impact. For good mesure, use a set of effects instead of only one, and alternate randomly between them. Video games are all about smoke and mirrors.