# StiffGIPC: Advancing GPU IPC for stiff affine-deformable simulation

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.06224 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.06224/

## Key facts

- Cited by 6 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 9 Nov 2024.

## Built on by (most cited first, 6 of 6)

- [PAT3D: Physics-Augmented Text-to-3D Scene Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.21978/) (2025)
- [WorldParticle: Unified World Simulation of Lagrangian Particle Dynamics via Transformer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.15305/) (2026)
- [4DCodeBench: Benchmarking Agents on Inverse Graphics of Dynamic Scenes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.03715/) (2026)
- [SIM1: Physics-Aligned Simulator as Zero-Shot Data Scaler in Deformable Worlds](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.08544/) (2026)
- [Adaptive Volumetric Mechanical Property Fields Invariant to Resolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.18231/) (2026)
- [An Efficient Multilevel Preconditioned Nonlinear Conjugate Gradient Method for Incremental Potential Contact](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.19892/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Incremental Potential Contact (IPC) is a widely used, robust, and accurate method for simulating complex frictional contact behaviors. However, achieving high efficiency remains a major challenge, particularly as material stiffness increases, which leads to slower Preconditioned Conjugate Gradient (PCG) convergence, even with the state-of-the-art preconditioners. In this paper, we propose a fully GPU-optimized IPC simulation framework capable of handling materials across a wide range of stiffnesses, delivering consistent high performance and scalability with up to 10x speedup over state-of-the-art GPU IPC methods. Our framework introduces three key innovations: 1) A novel connectivity-enhanced Multilevel Additive Schwarz (MAS) preconditioner on the GPU, designed to efficiently capture both stiff and soft elastodynamics and improve PCG convergence at a reduced preconditioning cost. 2) A C2-continuous cubic energy with an analytic eigensystem for strain limiting, enabling more parallel-friendly simulations of stiff membranes, such as cloth, without membrane locking. 3) For extremely stiff behaviors where elastic waves are barely visible, we employ affine body dynamics (ABD) with a hash-based multi-layer reduction strategy for fast Hessian assembly and efficient affine-deformable coupling. We conduct extensive performance analyses and benchmark studies to compare our framework against state-of-the-art methods and alternative design choices. Our system consistently delivers the fastest performance across soft, stiff, and hybrid simulation scenarios, even in cases with high resolution, large deformations, and high-speed impacts. Our framework will be fully open-sourced upon acceptance.