home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- Reaction-Diffusion Examples
-
- This directory contains two simple programs that generate patterns
- using the chemical process known as reaction-diffusion.
-
- The first of these programs is "linear", and it creates one-dimensional
- graphs of (simulated) chemical concentration. The chemical system
- being simulated generates a semi-regular landscape of peaks and valleys.
- By default, the simulation is performed on a line of 60 "cells" and
- displayed in a window of dimensions 1000 by 300 pixels. Here are the
- command line options:
-
- -s <xsize> <ysize> Change window dimensions.
- -n <ncells> Set the number of cells to <ncells>.
- -r <rspeed> Alter the reaction speed. Default is 1.
- Smaller values will give broader hills, and
- values much larger than 1 will cause the
- solution method to fail.
-
- Running "linear" with the invocation "linear -n 200 -r .2" on a DECstation
- 5000 gives a pleasing animation of the pattern forming process.
-
- The second program is "spots", and it can simulate either of two
- reaction-diffusion systems, one for making spots and the other for
- stripes. By default, "spots" creates a set of spots on a 30 by 30
- grid of cells. Here are the command line options:
-
- -n <xsize> <ysize> Change number of cells in grid.
- -x Draw stripes instead of spots.
-
-
- These programs were written to be stripped-down examples of how to
- simulate reaction-diffusion systems. Any number of improvements are
- possible, including: access to more of the reaction parameters, better
- user interface, simulation of other reaction-diffusion systems. Both
- programs use X11 to display the graphics, but the calls are isolated
- and it should be simple to substitute your favorite graphics library.
-
- For more information about reaction-diffusion, especially as it relates
- to computer graphics, see the following two articles:
-
- "Generating Textures on Arbitrary Surfaces Using Reaction-Diffusion"
- Greg Turk
- Computer Graphics, Vol. 25, No. 4, pp. 289-298
- July 1991 (SIGGRAPH '91)
-
- "Reaction-Diffusion Textures"
- Andrew Witkin and Michael Kass
- Computer Graphics, Vol. 25, No. 4, pp. 299-308
- July 1991 (SIGGRAPH '91)
-
- The bibliographies of these papers are reasonable jumping-off points
- into the reaction-diffusion literature.
-
-
- Greg Turk (turk@cs.unc.edu)
- August 1991
- updated July 1992
-