Dirty Motherfucking Blog » processing

Supernova

gencha — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 18:42:37 +0000

While working on a reference implementation in Actionscript for a demo effect, I accidentally ended up with this beauty. It’s based on the lovely City Traveler algorithm by Jared Tarbell with only a few minor adjustments actually. I thought I’d share nevertheless :) Be sure to stop it at some point, otherwise it will go on and on forever, eating up you cpu time.

As always, I also provide a larger version.

You can also dig out the source from the Processing repository, but it’s now buried under the more recent revision of the effect i was actually going for. So if you’re interested, better drop me a line ;)

Updated Processing works

gencha — Mon, 26 May 2008 13:54:14 +0000

I updated all the processing works to use a more common code base. Additionally i added start/stop functionality to the small versions displayed directly in the blog.
I also fixed a few minor (and some major) issues in the Sand Traveler project.
In the original code you will find the following line:

float tinc = ot+(1.1-t/num)*2*t*TWO_PI/num;

which i ported to:

var tinc:Number = ot + ( 1.1 - cityIdx / NUM_CITIES ) * 2 * cityIdx * MathHelper.TWO_PI / NUM_CITIES;

Now cityIdx (t) and NUM_CITIES (num) are both integers. Java (Processing) will correctly do the integer division (which always results in 0). Thus the whole term “(1.1-t/num)” always equals 1.1.
Now the Flex compiler has a different opinion on how this should be evaluated. The presence of 1.1 makes it cast cityIdx and NUM_CITIES to Number as well.

This whole drama led to further errors in the original port. You can grab the fixed source from svn://dirty-motherfucker.org:8888/processing/trunk

Here are the new stand alone versions:
Buddahbrot
Happy Place
Sand Traveler
Substrate

BuddahBrot in AS3

gencha — Thu, 22 May 2008 00:47:21 +0000

2008-05-26: I fixed some parts of this port. For further details check the updated works post.

For this one i have to credit quite a few people.
As always, i started out with the Processing source by Jared Tarbell. He based his code on an implementation by Paul Bourke, who based his work on a technique invented by Melinda Green.

It’s pretty much a straight ahead port of Tarbell’s code. Nothing to say about it. Click it to activate it. This is the version with a bailout value of 20 (nice looking results fast).

I didn’t package up a .zip with the source. But you can get the latest versions of all my processing ports from: svn://dirty-motherfucker.org:8888/processing/trunk
I also changed some of the other ports in the meanwhile. Some small bugs slipped in the versions i uploaded to the blog. So if you’re interested, be sure to grab the latest sources from the repository.

Jared Tarbell’s “Sand Traveller” in AS3

gencha — Thu, 22 May 2008 00:36:31 +0000

2008-05-26: I fixed some parts of this port. For further details check the updated works post.

I saved one of my favorites by Jared Tarbell’s for now. The algorithm amazed me almost as much as Substrate did, but when i decided to port Tarbell’s works i knew i could put a little sugar into this one.

I started converting it straight ahead but i also added new blending modes. This implementation is basically Tarbell’s third variation of the original implementation. I made it so that the traveler’s sandpainters will either pick additive or subtractive blending. This leads to some pretty nice results.

I didn’t add a smaller version inside this post as it needs some time to develop and it also needs a certain size so you can fully appreciate it. So please check out the large version (1000×1000).

Be sure to also grab the source and check out the originals by Tarbell.

I also added a preview version:

Jared Tarbell’s “Happy Place” in AS3

gencha — Thu, 15 May 2008 12:54:04 +0000

2008-05-26: I fixed some parts of this port. For further details check the updated works post.

I finished another one of Jared Tarbell’s works. Based on the experience with Substrate, this port was straight-forward.

I also just gave the new Flash Player 10 Beta a run for it’s money. I can only recommend installing it for a test runs on these Processing ports. On my Core2 Duo E6600 with FP9 one core is usually maxed out drawing these demos with reasonable speed. With FP10 i get fluid performance with CPU time to spare.

So here it is (click to start):

There is also a larger version (900×900).

As before you can also grab the source code.

Jared Tarbell’s “Substrate” in AS3

gencha — Tue, 13 May 2008 11:55:57 +0000

2008-05-26: I fixed some parts of this port. For further details check the updated works post.

Through a long web discovery session, i have come along the website of Jared Tarbell lately. If you aren’t familiar with his works you should definitely have a look.
Needless to say i was very impressed by his procedural image generation approaches, which are based on Processing.

So i decided to port some of his projects to ActionScript3. I have to admit that this wasn’t really a big task, as the source code can practically be copied & pasted directly into FlashDevelop and can be compiled to an SWF.

Something should be noted nevertheless. To achieve acceptable performance in a project like this it is fundamental to work directly with a BitmapData object and not the Graphics instances of the DisplayObjects.
So the only task that had to be done was to write some alpha-blending function and port a handful of Processing specific functions.

So here is my port of Substrate (click to start):

A larger version (1280×720) can be seen here. This version will also restart the animation when a limit of cracks has been reached.

You can also grab the source code and have some fun with it :)