

Zen Photon Garden - andyjohnson0
http://scanlime.org/2013/04/zen-photon-garden/

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daeken
I'm amazed that this runs wholly on the CPU. Seriously tempted to build a
WebGL demo using similar concepts, with the addition of lenses and other
optical geometry. It'd be tough to beat this in terms of the sheer cool
factor, though.

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pawelwentpawel
Great work! I just managed to create a godly looking "lolcat" -
<http://www.bit.ly/ZKtfnS> ;)

If create any closed shape (using lines set at 100% reflective) around the
light source, it seems to stop working so nicely. Are the rays just being
reflected around in an infinite loop?

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Aardwolf
> If it gets popular, I’d love to create an iOS app. The web site works on iOS
> in a minimal capacity, but it’s slow and not at all fun to use. Sculpting
> with light on the iPad seems like a natural fit.

Why not instead make it animate to music and turn it into a good old Winamp or
XMMS plugin? :)

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ninjay
I wonder what an actual artist could do with this. I was able to make a
hallway by playing with perspective:
[http://zenphoton.com/#AAQAAkAB9gCNlAAKAbwA0AIzANAAVakBoQDyAk...](http://zenphoton.com/#AAQAAkAB9gCNlAAKAbwA0AIzANAAVakBoQDyAkoA8gBVqQGUAQYCUgEGAFWpAXoBJQJeASQAVakBZAFDAm4BQgBVqQE+AWsCjgFpAFWpARUBoAKoAZwAVakA+AHFAsQBvwBVqQDbAe0C0QHmAFWpALoCCQLmAgAAVak=)

Also, you may want to integrate a URL shortener with the 'Share link'
button... [https://developers.google.com/api-client-
library/javascript/...](https://developers.google.com/api-client-
library/javascript/samples/samples)

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kailuowang
I love it! I am tempted to add the function to be able to add more light
sources with different colors, though it might need a different name for that
garden.

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wladimir
Very nice! Feels very atmospheric and relaxing.

It makes me think of a bit of a Matrioshka Brain structure (for example from
the Alistair Reynolds story Troika), with a star and surrounding shells that
capture ever more of the light.

Technically, it takes a similar approach to "real time" raytracing as the
cycles render engine in Blender, increasing the number of samples (thus
decreasing the noise) over time.

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ctdonath
I like visual "toy" apps, interactive if you like and slow self-changing if
you don't. Porting this to iOS would be great; one of those "if you don't I
will" sorta things.

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davesque
I love this. It's so pleasing to look at.

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giuliano108
Really cool (in a Zen kind of way)! :)

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nness
This is gorgeous!

