mediocre-blog/_posts/2018-11-12-viz-2.md

title	description	series	git_repo	git_commit
Visualization 2	Now in glorious technicolor!	viz	https://github.com/mediocregopher/viz.git	76caf80afc94655f2a21661714248676ed018328

This visualization builds on the previous. Structurally the cortesian grid has been turned into an isometric one, but this is more of an environmental change than a behavioral one.

Behavioral changes which were made:

• When a live point is deciding its next spawn points, it first sorts the set of empty adjacent points from closest-to-the-center to farthest. Then it randomly chooses a number n between 0 to N (where N is the size of that sorted set) and spawns new points in the first n points of the sorted set.

• Each point is spawned with an attached color, where the color chosen is a slightly different hue than its parent. The change is deterministic, so all child points of the same generation have the same color.

The second change is purely cosmetic, but does create a mesmerizing effect. The first change alters the behavior dramatically.

In the previous visualization the points moved around in groups aimlessly. Now the groups are all competing for the same thing, the center, and as a result congregate and are able to be viewed as a larger whole.

The constant churn of the whole takes many forms, from a spiral in the center, to waves crashing against each other, to outright chaos, to random purges of nearly all points. Each form lasts for only a few seconds before giving way to another.