Gilles Tran <tra### [at] inapginrafr> wrote:
> Mick Hazelgrove wrote:

>> Hi Gilles the only things I can think of that might help are blackhole warps
>> and perhaps as a last resort image maps!

> To be more precise, I'd like to find a way to position droplets of water on a
> surface. From real-life observation, condensation droplets are not positionned
> at random, but follow a pattern that looks like reptilian scales. So I thought
> that the solution could be in a "reptilian scale" pattern algorithm, something
> like a voronoi diagram but with some weight added to some of the points. My
> investigations so far are good enough for my current projet, but I'd like a
> better and more general solution.
> For a texture, though, black holes are something worth investigating.

Hmm, from a physical standpoint, it seems the droplets form based upon the
surface tension and the amount of water available.  I don't know how true
this is to real life, but I'd try something like scattering points on the
surface.  Those are the drop points.  Then, for any other point on the
surface, add it's strength (assume all points have uniform strength) to the
point closest to it.  Once you've simulated long enough (where long enough
is probably on the range of 10 - 1000 * number of drops), each drop can be
formed based on its weight.  Other statistics (direction?) could be kept to
shape the drop rather than having them all spherical.  You should get
something approximating the right pattern, I'd think.

But that's all idle speculation.  I dunno if it'd work.

Geoff

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