Concept:
This week’s sketch is a simulation that explores the fundamental force of gravity allowing users to observe how objects interact with each other in response to gravitational attraction and repulsion. It involves two types of entities: movers and attractors, and relies on acceleration, velocity, g-force and mass to move them.
Inspiration:
It is inspired by how gravitational power influences the motion and behavior of celestial bodies.
Code: https://editor.p5js.org/bdr/sketches/rtPleK4cp
Code Walkthrough:
Initialization and Setup:
At first, two arrays are defined ‘movers’ and ‘attractors’ to store instances of the Mover class. The setup function creates a canvas and initializes the simulation with one attractor at the center and four randomly positioned movers with random velocities. Each mover is given a random mass.
Mover Class:
The Mover class represents the moving objects in the simulation. Each mover has a position, velocity, acceleration, and mass which determines the strength of its gravitational attraction. The class includes methods for applying forces, attracting other objects, updating their position and velocity, and displaying itself on the canvas.
AddAttractor():
Users can add attractors to the simulation by double-clicking anywhere on the canvas.
Draw():
The draw function is the core of the simulation. It continuously updates and displays the state of the movers and attractors.
Translate(): It translates the coordinate system to the center of the canvas, making calculations and rendering centered around this point.
Mover-mover interaction: It iterates through each pair of movers to calculate gravitational forces between them. this creates a network of interconnected motions among the movers. Connecting lines are drawn between the movers to visualize these interactions.
Challenges:
One of the challenges I have faced is balancing the strength of gravitational forces to ensure that the simulation is visually appealing and not too chaotic. It took some experimentation and trial and error before finding the right values.
Improvements:
Collision detection: Implement collision detection and response for the movers when they come into close proximity to each other or with the canvas boundaries.
Trail effects: Add trail effects to the movers to visualize their path over time.
Gravitational bodies: Instead of circles, represent movers and attractors as more complex shapes or even images for a more realistic and visually appealing representation.