Marbles and Fields

This is a fair sized java applet so it may take a little time to load. Remember to click on the applet to gain focus for the keyboard commands (for some reason some times it takes more than one mouse click). To find out what commands are available press the '?' or '/' key.

This model is pretty deep with the options you can play with. Press the '?' or '/' key to see the key commands that can be pressed. Additionally though the field is 2 dimensional the mouse can be used in conjunction with the <shift> and <alt> or alone to change the location or zoom of the camera.

The marbles velocity influences the environment. In turn the velocity of the marble is affected by the environment. This is the basic concept of stigmergy; agents affect their environment and are affected by their environment. In this case, this circular process results in trail formation of the marbles leaving the applet along the edges.

Marbles in a Field

/,? Show Help Screen
p,P Pause
a,A Draw Marble
s Draw Marble influence line
S Draw Marble velocity vector
l,L Draw Marble history line
{,} Change Length of history line
space Add Marble
d,D Stamp Circle
t,T Change Circle between tangent and radial
\ Flip direction of stamp field
[,] Change radius of stamp circle
z Change target population to 0
Z Add 10 to target population
c Erase Field
C Erase Marbles
f Draw Field
F Draw Field Grid
e Evaporate field
n,N Add noise to field
r,R Reset View
0-9 Change View, Views can be saved with ctrl+
<,> Change max velocity of new marbles
-,= Change max field magnitude
,/. Change mass of new marbles

Mouse controls:
drag rotate
<shift>-drag zoom
<alt>-drag pan


Built with Processing