Modelling incompressible ideal fluids as a finite collection of
vortex filaments is important in physics (super-fluidity, models for the
onset of turbulence) as well as for numerical algorithms used in computer
graphics for the real time simulation of smoke. Here we introduce
a time-discrete evolution equation for arbitrary closed polygons in 3-
space that is a discretisation of the localised induction approximation of
filament motion. This discretisation shares with its continuum limit the
property that it is a completely integrable system. We apply this polygon
evolution to a significant improvement of the numerical algorithms
used in Computer Graphics.