Interactive physarum (web version)
- The behaviour of particles changes from cursor (“pen”) to background.
- A choice of simulation parameters is called a Point.
- You can choose pen and background Points with arrow keys (see top left).
- More information with the bottom-right button.
- Press P to see a random preset.
- Quality increase is recommended if your device is good enough (bottom selector).
Controls and information (scroll)
Mouse
- Move
- Position the pen
- Left click
- Scatter particles
- Right click
- Circular spawn
- Middle click
- Trigger a wave
Keyboard
- ← →
- Previous / next Point
- ↑ ↓
- Select pen / background
- R
- Random Points
- Space
- Random Points and color
- S
- Swap Points
- D / F
- Scatter / circular spawn
- X / C
- Pen size
- W
- Wave
- A
- Color mode
- H
- Show / hide pen
- P
- Curated preset
- T
- Parameter tuning
- I
- Controls and information
- J / K
- Save screenshot (clean / with text)
Gamepad
not activated- Left stick
- Move the pen
- Right stick
- Push particles
- Left trigger
- Inertia
- Right trigger
- Gamepad controls overlay
- D-pad
- Choose layer and Point
- A / B
- Random / swap Points
- X / Y
- Scatter / circular spawn
- LB / RB
- Pen size
- Stick clicks
- Show pen / wave
- View / Menu
- Parameter tuning / color
Information
The simulation algorithm is explained in this explanation article. To make it short, it started from an algorithm by Jeff Jones simulating physarum polycephalum (slime mold), then Sage Jenson made a more complex version called 36 Points with much more varied behaviours (each one is a Point, meaning a different choice of parameters), then I integrated their algorithm and parameters into a personal project, implemented differently and with interaction and features you can see here. That project is implemented with openFrameworks with the main purpose of making an interactive installation with gamepad control. And here this is a web version, made after seeing this other web translation (which includes use of WiFi data).
Original C++ project: openFrameworks interactive-physarum project, Derived from and using parameters from Sage Jenson’s 36 Points.
Points R to V were found by me. Others required a bit of tuning to look better with my implementation. The letters here don't match with the original 36 Points letter shortcuts.
License: Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial–ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0).