BOIDS! (Craig Reynolds' Flocking)

An implementation in Processing by Kaylah Facey

Commands

• space bar - Start or stop the simulation (default stopped).
• left mouse held down - continuous attraction (in attraction mode) or repulsion (in repulsion mode):
  • a - Switch to attraction mode (default).
  • r - Switch to repulsion mode.
• s - Cause all boids to be instantly scattered to random positions in the window, and with random directions.
• p - Toggle whether to have creatures leave a path, that is, whether the window is cleared each display step or not (default off).
• c - Clear the screen, but do not delete any boids. (This can be useful when creatures are leaving paths.)
• 1-4 - Toggle forces on/off (default on):
  • 1 - flock centering
  • 2 - velocity matching
  • 3 - collision avoidance
  • 4 - wandering
• Spawn and Kill:
  • +/= - Spawn (add one new boid to the simulation)
  • (minus sign) - Kill (Remove one boid from the simulation) (down to 0).

Custom Commands

• right mouse held down - do the opposite of the left mouse (repulsion in attraction mode, attraction in repulsion mode)

Extras

• Multiple boid species:
  • "Active" species controls what species appear on screen (inactive species don't affect the simulation)
  • "+/-" species is the species that the "spawn" and "kill" buttons (or +/- keys) control the population of.
  • Initially there are no blue or grey boids, those must be activated and added to to use.
  • Blue boids don't flock with orange boids but otherwise don't behave differently.
  • Grey boids are bigger and chase blue and orange boids. Blue and orange boids flee them, for a predator/prey dynamic.

FUTURE IDEAS

• Implement 3D flocking.
• Allow predators to eat prey.
• Include fixed collision objects for the creatures to steer around.
• food/resources/shelter
• Use a grid or Voronoi/Dalauney triangles to only consider the closest neighborhood of boids.
• boid colour variation