Elements Achieved

• Basic Flocking: done

• Simulation Context: Staging with background scene, realistic obstacles, shape of boids resembling black birds

• User Interaction: User can move the small 'enchanted' tree obstacle to break up the flock or just move it to a different location, by move up/dn/left/right arrow keys. The obstacle is bounded by the scene border. User can reset the system by pressing 'r' key.

• Additional Behavior: Boid flock moves around obstacles in a smooth natural way. Boid flock will also react to a moving obstacle, avoiding collision and move away with respect to the obstacle's speed.

• Improved Boid Rendering: Boids are rendered as skinny triangles oriented in the direction of traveling.

• Performance Benchmark: Highest number of boids can be supported with frame rate >= 30 is 720 on a HP envy laptop computer.

• Particle System Simulation: Simulated a 2D particle system and a 3D particle system. Both are water fountain style. The 2D fountain has context of a whale blowing water out of its blowhole. The 3D fountain has context of a green grass underneath. The 3D fountain also has a rotating about y-axis presentation to visually show its 3D implementation. Both particle systems had achieved realistic visual effect and has benchmark performance of >1000 particles at ~60 frame rate.

• Project Report & Video: This site.

Element Partially Achieved

• Flocking in 3D Scene: Implemented boids in 3D. Asymmetric shape orients in the direction of traveling. There is flocking behavior. However, when boids flew into a corner, they get stuck.

Group Member

• Hailin Archer deak0007@umn.edu

Benchmark Measurements

Benchmark measurement result: 1005 particles, frame rate = 59

Tools/Libraries Used

• partial codes from CSCI5611 class live activities session

• java.util

Other Resources Used

• processing.org: processing programming reference, general language tutorial

• natureofcode.com: general language tutorial

• pngguru.com : whale png image with transparent background in particle 2D implementation

• unsplash.com: high definition landscape ariel image for background scene in Boid simulation staging

• pluspng.com: tree png image with tranparent background for Boid simulation staging

Difficulties Encountered

• I spent a lot of time tuning parameters to get the flocking behavior right. It also appears that the sequence that the three forces are added together matters.

• I had trouble using the camera class. The same issue was posted on Piazza by another student. I end up implementing a constant rotation in space to show the 3D features.

• Implementing Boids in 3D is not straight forward. All the parameters worked in 2D needed re-tuning. I couldn't get it to work properly before due date.

Art Contest Submission