As part of learning Houdini and vex, i've been adapting some stuff from Daniel Shiffmans excellent Nature of Code book, in this case a pretty basic random walker.
To make it my own I've used a Solver followed by a trail node and metaballs to create a fairly cool organic mitosis setup.
It's all working okay but im just really conscious that by trying to teach myself i might not be doing things in the most efficent way possible and was hoping someone could offer any tip/suggestion on ways they might condense/optimize the code
In the solver ive setup two Attribute Wrangles (that's all there is in the sop), the first is set to run over a single point in the first frame and then multiple points as frames progress.
The second wrangle is a set to detail to create new points.
Wrangle 1
string RandDir = "none"; float ranLoc = fit01(rand(@ptnum),-0.01,0.01); float ranNum = rand(@ptnum+@numpt); if (ranNum > 0 && ranNum < 0.2){ RandDir = "up"; i@Age = i@Age +1; @P.z = @P.z +ranLoc; } else if (ranNum > 0.2 && ranNum < 0.4) { RandDir = "down"; i@Age = i@Age +1; @P.z = @P.z -ranLoc; } else if (ranNum > 0.4 && ranNum < 0.6){ RandDir = "left"; i@Age = i@Age +1; @P.x = @P.x -ranLoc; } else { RandDir = "right"; i@Age = i@Age +1; @P.x = @P.x +ranLoc; }
Wrangle 2 linked to Wrangle 1
i@Age = point(0,'Age',0); vector pos = point(0,'P',i@numberOfPoints); //Adds a new point from the last point every XX frames if (i@Age == 10){ addpoint(0,pos); setpointattrib(0,'Age',0,0,"set"); i@numberOfPoints++; }
Any comments much appreciated
Also should this type of thing actually be posted in the Indie/Apprentice channel?