Here’s my own software toy, Ball Universe. I wrote it sometime in 1998, and it has been posted on the web before, back in the days of my Geocities page. (I wonder if that is floating around somewhere in Wayback Machine space? It was at SiliconValley/Way/… some number.)
I find it relaxing and infinitely entertaining. You can do all sorts of different stuff if you care to try. There is no point to it.
I was reminded of this old thing by the software toys from the other day, and by the newish fluidballs hack in XScreenSaver. Here’s a page about the code fluidballs was derived from, called Fluid Simulation. An uncanny resemblance to my Ball Universe, I think.
I’ve always had the idea in the back of my head that I’ll come back to this, and try to use the information in this series of articles on Rigid Body Dynamics to make the physics a little better, and see if I can figure out how to add different shaped objects, and spin. A ball knocking over a stack of blocks would be pleasing.
Nicolas
Even better than I remember it! Start with large balls and high elasticity. Then add small balls, as they all sit near the bottom of the well they will sort themselves by radius. Very cool.
steve
Hm.. it\’s actually WORSE than I remember it. The balls inter-penetrate all the time, and you can\’t stack that many of them up. Even the bounces of the walls don\’t look right to me somehow.
And the JVM on OS X is so slow! On my iBook, it runs about as fast as it used to on my old 120 MHz PC. Maybe I should get the developer preview JDK 1.4.1? Is that any better?
By the way, I went and got Apple\’s beta X11, and it\’s wayyyyy faster than that OrborOSX I was using before. I\’m using it to run the different hacks in XScreenSaver. Even the OpenGL ones work. I haven\’t figured out if it\’s actually possible to use it as a screensaver, though.
nate
I remember this thing! I was playing it late last night, and karen caught me, and accused me of playing \”too many games\”. And I pointed out, \”No this isn\’t a game, it\’s ball universe\”. And then after a good laugh, she claimed it WAS a game, and i wasn\’t allowed to play it anymore because of it\’s \”game\” status. So my only recommendation is to make it less fun so it doesn\’t get categorized as a game and I can play it more.
nick
better in JVM 1.4.2, no interpenetration, brighter colors I think. And a brushed metal control panel…
Pleae leave a comment!