[PD] more dimensions for boids ?

[Claude Heiland-Allen]

Hi,

On 01/10/10 09:58, ronni montoya wrote:
> Hello everybody , i was reading a paper that describe the software
> swarm music(Blackwell and Bentley 2002). This software uses 7
> dimensional boids  instead of 2 or 3 .
> I was wondering how can i implement this in pd? Is it possible to add
> more dimensions to the boids2d or boids3d external? how can i do that?

I'm not familiar with these externals.  If they are implemented 
similarly to 'msd' externals, you might be able to recompile for any 
number of dimensions (fixed at compile time) with a simple flag or so.

> how can i implement boids with more dimensions?

With a vector representation of the rules for the boids to follow it 
should be possible to have as many dimensions as you like: for example, 
checking that a boid can see another boid:

    V `dot` P
   ----------- > -0.5 , where V = view direction, P = boid direction
   ||V|| ||P||

This equation doesn't specify dimension, so should work for any.

> If its not possible wouldnt be any difference if i use 2 boids3d
> objects to control 6 audio parameters?would it be the same having 2
> boids3d objects  controlling 6 parameters and having one boid of 6 six
> dimentions?

No - because you don't get transfer of energy/vibes/whatever between the 
two sets of 3 dimensions - they remain disjoint.  It's not just about 
the total number of dimensions, but how they are connected together (at 
every point in the space).


Claude
-- 
http://claudiusmaximus.goto10.org