PHYSARUM
Inspired by the work of Sage Jenson, I began experimenting with my own implementation of an algorithm that mimics the behavior of the slime mold Physarum polycephalum.
Below are some of my favorite results from these explorations.
GRAYSCALE
COLOR
Harnessing the power of compute shaders, I ran three sets of simulations with millions of agents in each color channel of a render texture. Each layer influences the others: avoiding or blending to create mesmerizing tapestries of color.
color study #1
music: Lorn - Devour
color study #2
music: Lorn - Devour
color study #3
music: Belong - October Language
AUDIO-REACTIVITY
I quickly realized that I wanted to integrate an audio-reactive component into the system. Leveraging the frequency analysis tools already used in PROJECT FORLORN and the LORN VISUALIZER, I achieved promising results.
MEMORY MANAGEMENT
music: Lorn - MEMORY MANAGEMENT
MUSIC IS MATH
music: Boards of Canada - Music is Math
MUDSHOVEL
music: ffaux - MUDSHOVEL
CASH ROMANTIC
music: Overmono - Cash Romantic
PERMEKE 2022
After friend and previous collaborator ffaux approached me to create visuals for his upcoming live show, I refined the user interface, added preset save/load functionality, and enabled live communication with Ableton. I also implemented several quality-of-life features and packaged the Unreal application in time for the event.
Below, you can find a short montage of the show and the full screen recording.
ffaux live
edit by ffaux
PHYSARUM 3D (WIP)
The natural progression from there was adding a third dimension. I began developing a volumetric version of the compute shader, which introduced significant complexity and performance costs.
While the fidelity doesn’t yet match the 2D version, I believe this type of shader holds immense potential for generating interesting real-time visuals that react to various influences in a 3D environment.
I hope to continue improving and learning as I refine this work through further experimentation and optimization.
Raymarched Density-Map
music: Ben Salisbury, Geoff Barrow - The Alien