Realistic flames can be seen in many computer generated animation sequences. While these scenes are appealing to the eye, the non-dynamic nature of these sequences, whether they are rendered offline one frame at a time or parameterized into articulated hierarchies with the parameter values varied over time, greatly limits their potential as a mechanism for simulating real-time fire.

This paper introduces a technique similar to the method used in simulating fire in theatrical productions for modeling flame dynamically, using physically based methods. First, we describe a particle-based method for managing single flames and the necessary mathematics for extending the model to a physically based one. Then we present a method for managing dynamically resizeable groups of individual flames as fires. The final model reacts in real-time to dynamic aspects of its environment such as wind gusts, fuel supply, and oxygen replenishment rate, and is capable of receiving these parameters online during simulation as PDU's, suggesting the development of a DIS standard regarding fire. The technique is suitable for use in realistic battlefield simulations, and firefighter training applications.