parent
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--- |
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title: >- |
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New Year's Resolution Vibe Check |
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description: >- |
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The not-quite-halfway progress report. |
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--- |
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|
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It's been over five months since I started my New Year's resolution, where I |
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committed to writing 52 blog posts by the end of the year. This week I'm on the |
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first vacation I've been able to take since the pandemic started, and, for lack |
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of anything else to really write about, am doing an almost-halfway checkup on |
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the whole process. |
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|
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Almost immediately into the process I wished I'd set my sights a bit lower. One |
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post a week is a pretty intense pace, it turns out. If I were to reset the |
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parameters of the resolution I would probably halve the requirements, down to |
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26 posts in the year. One concern would be that I would be more likely to forget |
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to do the bi-weekly post, whereas with the current system it's coupled with my |
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normal work rhythm and so stays more top of mind. But I think I'd have a much |
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easier time (perhaps even twice as easy!), so it might balance out. |
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|
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My thought in the beginning was that I could write on Friday afternoons or |
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Monday mornings as a bookend to working, but what's generally happened is that I |
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write on weekends. During the week the energy to write something up just isn't |
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there; writing posts is a kind of work all on its own, and I can only bring |
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myself to do so much work everyday. |
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|
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Lately it's been particularly difficult to pump out the posts. Obviously a large |
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component of this is that I quickly picked all the low hanging fruit that were |
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on my mind when I started this resolution, but an unexpected culprit has also |
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appeared: seasons. When I started the resolution it was still winter, and during |
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the cold months it's a lot easier to stay inside and work on a computer. As the |
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weather warms it's been harder to find time though, in between working on the |
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garden and going out and doing things with friends. |
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|
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Figuring out what to write about is becoming more of a challenge as well |
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(obviously, given the topic of this post). Ideally I'd like to post about things |
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I'm _doing_, rather than just talking about some topic, and for the most part |
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I've mostly kept to that. Constantly posting about ideas I have or opinions I |
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hold isn't really contributing any real work, unless the ideas or opinions are |
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really groundbreaking (they're not). If, on the other hand, I use the posts as a |
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kind of background motivation to get up and do something useful, so I can write |
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about what I did, then at least progress has been made on _something_. |
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|
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The catch there is that I've now added an additional "thing" to do every week, |
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in addition to the weekly post, and, as previously covered, I just don't have |
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the time and energy for that. So some posts (ahem) are pretty much fluff, and I |
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barely have the energy for those! Yet another reason to wish I'd committed to 26 |
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in the year, I suppose. |
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|
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It hasn't been all added stress and strife though. Doing the posts _has_ caused |
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me to work on side projects more, and even better quite a few people I know have |
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given me really good feedback on what I've been doing, and some have even |
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started getting involved. So, in the sense of being a way to inform others about |
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the things I'm working on, the posts are a great success! And I've definitely |
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been more consistent about working on side projects this year. |
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|
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I'll wrap this up and continue with my vacation. Summary: blog is more extra |
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work than expected, it's maybe worth it, but it would be more worth it if I |
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halved my pace. I'm not _going_ to halve my pace, because that's not how |
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resolutions work. The end. |
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@ -0,0 +1,213 @@ |
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--- |
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title: >- |
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Visualization 4 |
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description: >- |
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Birth, death, and colors. |
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series: viz |
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tags: tech art |
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--- |
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|
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<canvas id="canvas" style="padding-bottom: 2rem;" width="100%" height="100%"></canvas> |
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|
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This visualization is a conglomeration of ideas from all the previous ones. On |
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each tick up to 20 new pixels are generated. The color of each new pixel is |
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based on the average color of its neighbors, plus some random drift. |
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|
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Each pixel dies after a certain number of ticks, `N`. A pixel's life can be |
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extended by up to `8N` ticks, one for each neighbor it has which is still alive. |
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This mechanism accounts for the strange behavior which is seen when the |
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visualization first loads, but also allows for more coherent clusters of pixels |
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to hold together as time goes on. |
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|
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The asteroid rule is also in effect in this visualization, so the top row and |
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bottom row pixels are neighbors of each other, and similarly for the rightmost |
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and leftmost column pixels. |
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|
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<script type="text/javascript"> |
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|
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function randn(n) { |
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return Math.floor(Math.random() * n); |
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} |
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|
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const canvas = document.getElementById("canvas"); |
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const parentWidth = canvas.parentElement.offsetWidth; |
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|
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const rectSize = Math.floor(parentWidth /100 /2) *2; // must be even number |
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console.log("rectSize", rectSize); |
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|
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canvas.width = parentWidth - rectSize - (parentWidth % rectSize); |
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canvas.height = canvas.width * 0.75; |
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canvas.height -= canvas.height % rectSize; |
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const ctx = canvas.getContext("2d"); |
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|
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const w = (canvas.width / rectSize) - 1; |
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const h = (canvas.height / rectSize) - 1; |
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|
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class Elements { |
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constructor() { |
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this.els = {}; |
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this.diff = {}; |
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} |
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|
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_normCoord(coord) { |
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if (typeof coord !== 'string') coord = JSON.stringify(coord); |
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return coord; |
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} |
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|
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get(coord) { |
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return this.els[this._normCoord(coord)]; |
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} |
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|
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getAll() { |
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return Object.values(this.els); |
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} |
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|
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set(coord, el) { |
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this.diff[this._normCoord(coord)] = {action: "set", coord: coord, ...el}; |
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} |
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|
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unset(coord) { |
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this.diff[this._normCoord(coord)] = {action: "unset"}; |
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} |
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|
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drawDiff(ctx) { |
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for (const coordStr in this.diff) { |
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const el = this.diff[coordStr]; |
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const coord = JSON.parse(coordStr); |
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|
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if (el.action == "set") { |
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ctx.fillStyle = `hsl(${el.h}, ${el.s}, ${el.l})`; |
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} else { |
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ctx.fillStyle = `#FFF`; |
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} |
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ctx.fillRect(coord[0]*rectSize, coord[1]*rectSize, rectSize, rectSize); |
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} |
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} |
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applyDiff() { |
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for (const coordStr in this.diff) { |
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const el = this.diff[coordStr]; |
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delete this.diff[coordStr]; |
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|
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if (el.action == "set") { |
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delete el.action; |
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this.els[coordStr] = el; |
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} else { |
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delete this.els[coordStr]; |
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} |
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} |
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} |
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} |
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|
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const neighbors = [ |
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[-1, -1], [0, -1], [1, -1], |
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[-1, 0], /* [0, 0], */ [1, 0], |
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[-1, 1], [0, 1], [1, 1], |
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]; |
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|
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function neighborsOf(coord) { |
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return neighbors.map((n) => { |
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let nX = coord[0]+n[0]; |
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let nY = coord[1]+n[1]; |
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nX = (nX + w) % w; |
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nY = (nY + h) % h; |
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return [nX, nY]; |
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}); |
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} |
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|
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function randEmptyNeighboringCoord(els, coord) { |
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const neighbors = neighborsOf(coord).sort(() => Math.random() - 0.5); |
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for (const nCoord of neighbors) { |
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if (!els.get(nCoord)) return nCoord; |
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} |
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return null; |
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} |
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|
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function neighboringElsOf(els, coord) { |
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const neighboringEls = []; |
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for (const nCoord of neighborsOf(coord)) { |
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const el = els.get(nCoord); |
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if (el) neighboringEls.push(el); |
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} |
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return neighboringEls; |
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} |
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const drift = 30; |
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function newEl(nEls) { |
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// for each h (which can be considered as degrees around a circle) break the h |
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// down into x and y vectors, and add those up separately. Then find the angle |
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// between those two resulting vectors, and that's the "average" h value. |
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let x = 0; |
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let y = 0; |
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nEls.forEach((el) => { |
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const hRad = el.h * Math.PI / 180; |
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x += Math.cos(hRad); |
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y += Math.sin(hRad); |
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}); |
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let h = Math.atan2(y, x); |
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h = h / Math.PI * 180; |
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// apply some random drift, normalize |
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h += (Math.random() * drift * 2) - drift; |
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h = (h + 360) % 360; |
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return { |
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h: h, |
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s: "100%", |
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l: "50%", |
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}; |
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} |
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const requestAnimationFrame = |
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window.requestAnimationFrame || |
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window.mozRequestAnimationFrame || |
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window.webkitRequestAnimationFrame || |
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window.msRequestAnimationFrame; |
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const els = new Elements(); |
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const maxNewElsPerTick = 20; |
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const deathThresh = 20; |
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let tick = 0; |
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function doTick() { |
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tick++; |
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const allEls = els.getAll().sort(() => Math.random() - 0.5); |
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if (allEls.length == 0) { |
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els.set([w/2, h/2], { |
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h: randn(360), |
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s: "100%", |
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l: "50%", |
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}); |
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} |
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let newEls = 0; |
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for (const el of allEls) { |
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const nCoord = randEmptyNeighboringCoord(els, el.coord); |
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if (!nCoord) continue; // el has no empty neighboring spots |
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const nEl = newEl(neighboringElsOf(els, nCoord)) |
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nEl.tick = tick; |
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els.set(nCoord, nEl); |
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newEls++; |
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if (newEls >= maxNewElsPerTick) break; |
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} |
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for (const el of allEls) { |
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const nEls = neighboringElsOf(els, el.coord); |
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if (tick - el.tick - (nEls.length * deathThresh) >= deathThresh) els.unset(el.coord); |
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} |
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els.drawDiff(ctx); |
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els.applyDiff(); |
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requestAnimationFrame(doTick); |
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} |
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requestAnimationFrame(doTick); |
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|
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</script> |
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