7 ms·

Evolving Lindenmayer Systems

96 points by schnautzi 7y ago

invalidOrTaken 7y ago
>"the deepest thing I would like to communicate with you today...is we don't know how to design systems yet" ~ Alan Kay, OOPSLA '98 What would a Lindenmayer "toy" look like, I wonder?
- Rabidgremlin 7y ago
  pretty cool? See the 3D examples at the bottom of this post: http://blog.rabidgremlin.com/2014/12/09/procedural-content-generation-l-systems/ http://blog.rabidgremlin.com/2014/12/09/procedural-content-g...
carapace 7y ago
"The Algorithmic Beauty of Plants" is an awesome book on L-systems: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Algorithmic_Beauty_of_Plants https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Algorithmic_Beauty_of_Plan...
- mturmon 7y ago
  Seconded. It's really fascinating for anyone who is interested in the relationships between mechanistic generation and biological/natural artifacts. For me, this book fits in the same family as Benoit Mandelbrot's "The Fractal Geometry of Nature", and Ulf Grenander's work on stochastic models for the generation of shapes like hands. And see also, cellular automata.
  - pastrami_panda 7y ago
    I'm not familiar with Ulf's work, but it sounds very interesting. I tried finding his work on stochastic models for shape generation but didn't find it. Mind pointing me in the right direction?
    - mturmon 7y ago
      I like the approachable monograph — https://www.springer.com/us/book/9780387973869 https://www.springer.com/us/book/9780387973869 But there is also the magisterial — https://global.oup.com/academic/product/pattern-theory-9780198505709?cc=lt&lang=en& https://global.oup.com/academic/product/pattern-theory-97801... There is a lot of published work from this school, including the seminal Geman and Geman paper from 1984, one of the most cited works in engineering.
- peapicker 7y ago
  Agreed, I have a first edition. There was a followup book, “The Algorithmic Beauty of Seashells”, which is also pretty good.
- Rerarom 7y ago
  Does anyone know of a more recent book on the subject than that? I haven't been able to find any.
- agumonkey 7y ago
  Followed by Turing's https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chemical_Basis_of_Morphogenesis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chemical_Basis_of_Morphoge...
Gallactide 7y ago
This is an absolutely awesome reading, thanks for the upload. Genuinely fascinating.
pmoriarty 7y ago
The most interesting thing I've seen done with L-systems is algorithmically compose music, which can have interesting self-similar, fractal like structures.
- onemoresoop 7y ago
  http://modularbrains.net/portfolio/do-digital-monkeys-inhabit-virtual-trees/ http://modularbrains.net/portfolio/do-digital-monkeys-inhabi...
Epholys 7y ago
I'm always happy to see L-Systems! I find them really awesome, the base principle is very simple: string rewriting. But the results can really be impressive for such a simple concept. I can't help but do a shameless self-plug: I'm developing an interactive L-System generator : https://github.com/epholys/procgen https://github.com/epholys/procgen. Here is a little demo: https://www.reddit.com/r/proceduralgeneration/comments/b4kpaw/weekly_lsystem_special_edition_demo/ https://www.reddit.com/r/proceduralgeneration/comments/b4kpa... And here are the L-System I've produced: https://imgur.com/a/0Rx7uln https://imgur.com/a/0Rx7uln
- schnautzi 7y ago
  I've been seeing yours on reddit lately, very nice stuff!
Lindenmayer 7y ago
I really love the YouTube channel Coding Train [0] - he also made some videos about L-Systems which he also explains in his free book The Nature of Code [1]. My username for HN was inspired by the creator of L-Systems, hehe. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1B4UoSQMFw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1B4UoSQMFw [1] https://natureofcode.com/book/chapter-8-fractals/ https://natureofcode.com/book/chapter-8-fractals/

96 points by schnautzi 7y ago

>"the deepest thing I would like to communicate with you today...is we don't know how to design systems yet" ~ Alan Kay, OOPSLA '98 What would a Lindenmayer "toy" look like, I wonder?

Rabidgremlin 7y ago
pretty cool? See the 3D examples at the bottom of this post: http://blog.rabidgremlin.com/2014/12/09/procedural-content-generation-l-systems/ http://blog.rabidgremlin.com/2014/12/09/procedural-content-g...

carapace 7y ago

"The Algorithmic Beauty of Plants" is an awesome book on L-systems: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Algorithmic_Beauty_of_Plants https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Algorithmic_Beauty_of_Plan...

mturmon 7y ago
Seconded. It's really fascinating for anyone who is interested in the relationships between mechanistic generation and biological/natural artifacts. For me, this book fits in the same family as Benoit Mandelbrot's "The Fractal Geometry of Nature", and Ulf Grenander's work on stochastic models for the generation of shapes like hands. And see also, cellular automata.
- pastrami_panda 7y ago
  I'm not familiar with Ulf's work, but it sounds very interesting. I tried finding his work on stochastic models for shape generation but didn't find it. Mind pointing me in the right direction?
  - mturmon 7y ago
    I like the approachable monograph — https://www.springer.com/us/book/9780387973869 https://www.springer.com/us/book/9780387973869 But there is also the magisterial — https://global.oup.com/academic/product/pattern-theory-9780198505709?cc=lt&lang=en& https://global.oup.com/academic/product/pattern-theory-97801... There is a lot of published work from this school, including the seminal Geman and Geman paper from 1984, one of the most cited works in engineering.
peapicker 7y ago
Agreed, I have a first edition. There was a followup book, “The Algorithmic Beauty of Seashells”, which is also pretty good.
Rerarom 7y ago
Does anyone know of a more recent book on the subject than that? I haven't been able to find any.
agumonkey 7y ago
Followed by Turing's https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chemical_Basis_of_Morphogenesis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chemical_Basis_of_Morphoge...

Gallactide 7y ago

This is an absolutely awesome reading, thanks for the upload. Genuinely fascinating.

pmoriarty 7y ago

The most interesting thing I've seen done with L-systems is algorithmically compose music, which can have interesting self-similar, fractal like structures.

onemoresoop 7y ago
http://modularbrains.net/portfolio/do-digital-monkeys-inhabit-virtual-trees/ http://modularbrains.net/portfolio/do-digital-monkeys-inhabi...

Epholys 7y ago

I'm always happy to see L-Systems! I find them really awesome, the base principle is very simple: string rewriting. But the results can really be impressive for such a simple concept. I can't help but do a shameless self-plug: I'm developing an interactive L-System generator : https://github.com/epholys/procgen https://github.com/epholys/procgen. Here is a little demo: https://www.reddit.com/r/proceduralgeneration/comments/b4kpaw/weekly_lsystem_special_edition_demo/ https://www.reddit.com/r/proceduralgeneration/comments/b4kpa... And here are the L-System I've produced: https://imgur.com/a/0Rx7uln https://imgur.com/a/0Rx7uln

schnautzi 7y ago
I've been seeing yours on reddit lately, very nice stuff!

Lindenmayer 7y ago

I really love the YouTube channel Coding Train [0] - he also made some videos about L-Systems which he also explains in his free book The Nature of Code [1]. My username for HN was inspired by the creator of L-Systems, hehe. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1B4UoSQMFw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1B4UoSQMFw [1] https://natureofcode.com/book/chapter-8-fractals/ https://natureofcode.com/book/chapter-8-fractals/