The quality of this animation (resolution, framerate) is very poor compared
to the one by Greg. However, there's nothing wrong with the flocking system
itself. I managed to make the flock "springy" and also to give it a natural
look by making the boids fly in and out amongst each other. Hmm, but where
do I go from here...?

Greetings,

Rune
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Attachments:
Download 'flock1.zip' (289 KB)

Very cool.  Is each individual actor aligned to its current velocity, or does
it always point forward?  I always went back to the drawing board when some
code resulted in violently flicking actors.  Part of your springy feel might
just be that you're moving a lot faster than I am.  How did you manage the "fly
in among each other" effect?

Getting late, more comments later.

Rune wrote:

> The quality of this animation (resolution, framerate) is very poor compared
> to the one by Greg. However, there's nothing wrong with the flocking system
> itself. I managed to make the flock "springy" and also to give it a natural
> look by making the boids fly in and out amongst each other. Hmm, but where
> do I go from here...?

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I updated my animation to make the ships a little bit wilder. Each has a unique
attraction point which varies in z as it moves in x.   It also looks better with
them going faster.  Observant viewers will note that my tiny ships pass over a golf
hole-- a remnant from when I used this isosurface-containing INC for a defunct golf
idea......

 http://members.xoom.com/_XMCM/gregjohn/animation.html#POV15






"Greg M. Johnson" wrote:

> Rune wrote:
>
> > The quality of this animation (resolution, framerate) is very poor compared
> > to the one by Greg. However, there's nothing wrong with the flocking system
> > itself. I managed to make the flock "springy" and also to give it a natural
> > look by making the boids fly in and out amongst each other. Hmm, but where
> > do I go from here...?

Post a reply to this message

Attachments:
Download 'flyby16f.jpg' (17 KB)

Preview of image 'flyby16f.jpg'

I forgot I had downloaded the zip but failed to look at the animation until
now.
It is very springy, what came to my mind was a hovercraft simulation showing
visible air between it and the ground.  Okay, maybe not.

Bob

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"Greg M. Johnson" wrote:
> I updated my animation to make the ships a little bit wilder.
> Each has a unique attraction point which varies in z as it
> moves in x.

Definitely better. A little "wilder", but they still always remain in the
same position in the formation (unlike in the method I use). The one method
probably is better for some purposes, while the other is better for other
purposes. It might also partially be a matter of taste.

> Observant viewers will note that my tiny ships pass over a
> golf hole-- a remnant from when I used this isosurface-
> containing INC for a defunct golf idea......

Defunct? Sad to hear. I also found my push-ball and my missile-bot ideas
defunct :-(

Greetings,

Rune
--
Updated July 23: http://rsj.mobilixnet.dk
3D images, include files, stereograms, tutorials,
The POV Desktop Theme, The POV-Ray Logo Contest,
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"Greg M. Johnson" wrote:
> Very cool.

Thanks!

> Is each individual actor aligned to its current velocity,
> or does it always point forward?

Both! ;-)
Each boid is aligned to the direction in which it is moving (which I would
call forward).

> I always went back to the drawing board when some code
> resulted in violently flicking actors.

I've tried that too. I'm not sure, but I think it happens mostly when boids
are forced to be pushed too mush into the ground, so I try to avoid that. It
also to help to use a higher number of "calculation frames".

> Part of your springy feel might just be that you're moving
> a lot faster than I am.

Yes maybe.

> How did you manage the "fly in among each other" effect?

At your animations page you show a flock that assembles itself into a single
chain with one track. My flock assembles itself into 4 chains with 6 tracks
each. However, the individual chains and tracks are not visible because of
the relative low number of boids, so it just looks like "complicated flock
behavior". It would also work for more boids, then I'd just have to raise
the number of chains and/or tracks per chain.

Greetings,

Rune
--
Updated July 23: http://rsj.mobilixnet.dk
3D images, include files, stereograms, tutorials,
The POV Desktop Theme, The POV-Ray Logo Contest,
music, 350+ raytracing jokes, and much more!

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I have made some improvements to my flock.
A 482KB .mpg animation can be downloaded from here:

http://rsj.mobilixnet.dk/temp/flock2.mpg

Greetings,

Rune
--
Updated July 23: http://rsj.mobilixnet.dk
3D images, include files, stereograms, tutorials,
The POV Desktop Theme, The POV-Ray Logo Contest,
music, 350+ raytracing jokes, and much more!

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Rune wrote:

> "Greg M. Johnson" wrote:
> > Observant viewers will note that my tiny ships pass over a
> > golf hole-- a remnant from when I used this isosurface-
> > containing INC for a defunct golf idea......
>
> Defunct? Sad to hear. I also found my push-ball and my missile-bot ideas
> defunct :-(

A golf ball might either bounce or roll on a surface.

I had a very cool bouncing algorithm that insisted on making the particle fall
through the surface when it came to "rolling."

I had a very cool rolling algorithm for which I never could figure out how to
make the balls "rotate" properly.

And then the programming headache of making a ball smart enough to know to
switch between bouncing and rolling drove me nuts..........

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