Week 3: L-systems



click here for things you can try relating to this class.





Downloads

You may wish to download the following packages (gzipped and tar'ed) containing the code and Makefiles discussed below:



L-systems


L-systems, created by Dutch biologist Aristid Lindenmayer (hence the clever name), are a way that way can formalize and add some structure to the "bumbleball" simulation. But we're not actually going to do this in the class! We'll discuss how an L-systems approach might be used to extend the model, but mainly we want your imagination to run wild and do amazing things. To assist, here are some of the links to information and fun applications involving L-systems: L-systems are also closely related to cellular automata and fractal techniques in general, which we will be examining in the next class.

yeah!


Fun Things To Try...

1. Try attaching more parameters of the STRUM program to features of the simulation -- i.e. perhaps model the "force" of each bounce and tie that to a sonic parameter.

2. Instead of having the bumbleball bounce back from the walls, change them to reflect a toroidal or spherical world.

3. Come up with a scheme to dynamically modify the pitch content of the arrays being used (with perhaps differing numbers of pitches), tied to a new feature of the simulation.