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Show HN: Random Roads

random-roads--edwardcunningh2.repl.co

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Re: Show HN: Random Roads

#12

Post by edwardc »

jk563 wrote: post #10

Being able to see the random seed used in the console and use it in the hash is a nice touch. I found a few large ones and one with a single path between two points (1592751582695)

Well spotted!

I enjoy the large ones (eg. https://random-roads--edwardcunningh2.repl.co/#1589058113269) where I imagine the gaps left in the middle to be parks.

Re: Show HN: Random Roads

#14

Post by edwardc »

dfxt8 wrote: post #5

Hey, good work! What algorithm did you use?

Thanks! You can see the code here: https://repl.it/@EdwardCunningh2/Random-Roads

It's not especially clever:

1. I define a set of possible moves (eg. straight ahead, left turn, junction, etc). One possible move is a dead-end, which looks a bit like a house in my interpretation.

2. Each move is assigned a relative weight (eg. continuing straight ahead 10x more likely than turning left).

3. Each iteration, for each of the roads under construction, a random move is selected. Some moves are impossible (based on other roads already drawn on the map) and so it will ensure not to select one that would result in a collision. At worst, it will terminate the road with a dead-end.

4. Repeat forever, until every road has terminated in a dead-end.

Most of the script itself is dealing with the rendering logic. To avoid collisions I maintain a 2D array of all visited points.

Re: Show HN: Random Roads

#15

Post by edwardc »

A4ET8a8uTh0 wrote: post #6

Oddly mesmerising. What did you use to do it?

Thanks. It's plain JavaScript, rendering with an HTML canvas.

I did investigate JS 2D graphics libraries but decided in the end that this was sufficiently simple to not warrant one. It was harder than I expected to get the drag & zoom to work!

Re: Show HN: Random Roads

#17

Post by edwardc »

Cynddl wrote: post #3

Thanks for sharing! Really like the minimal design and the animations. Could you explain how you did this simulation?

Thanks for the feedback - the minimal look is pleasing to my eye too!

I wrote a brief description in this comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23592538

Initially I had envisaged something a bit cleverer, but for an art project keeping it simple seemed to do the trick.

Re: Show HN: Random Roads

#20

Post by edwardc »

nostoc wrote: post #18

Interesting. this one seems to show the boundaries of the display plane : https://random-roads--edwardcunningh2.repl.co/#1592753917190

Good one! Yes, you've hit the bottom there.

It is artificially limited to a 1001 x 1001 grid - just to stop it from growing forever (which could get quite slow on lower end devices). In practice I rarely encounter maps that go that far.

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