I am back with another update on my project: creating a deterministic ocean simulation and implementing a boat with a simple four-point buoyancy solver.
In my last update, I confirmed that I could send positional and rotational data from Unity to my Arduino setup. I now have the raw simulation source needed for the next phase of the project.
For some technical details...
The water surface is a procedurally generated plane deformed by two one-dimensional sine waves. Each wave has independent controls, and they can be combined to produce two-dimensional wave patterns, as shown by the crossed-wave preset in the video.
I intentionally started with a simple system so I could create predictable and repeatable scenarios for debugging and calibration. Once the physical platform is built, I would like to explore more realistic wave models, such as Gerstner waves or a spectrum-based ocean simulation.
The boat uses a four-point buoyancy system that applies force at four locations on a single Rigidbody. It is a simple solution for now, but the same approach could be expanded with more sampling points to support larger or more complex hull shapes. At this stage, it works well as a source of raw motion that I can eventually map to the Stewart platform.
My next update will focus on building the motion pipeline, which will sit between the Unity simulation and the Arduino. This layer will process, scale, filter, and limit the raw motion before it is sent to the physical system.
Stay tuned for more!