Boids: A Flocking Simulation

DESCRIPTION

Welcome to Boids: A Flocking Simulation! This is an interactive flocking simulation where you can play around with different parameters and see how it affects the flying boids. Experiment with different combinations or add in obstacles to guide the boids, and have fun!

HOW TO OPERATE

Alignment	Affects the force of each boid steering toward the average direction of its flock neighbors.
Cohesion	Affects the force of each boid steering toward the average position of its flock neighbors.
Separation	Affects the force of each boid avoiding its flock neighbors.
Speed	Affects the speed with which each boid moves.
Neighbor Radius	Affects the size of the circle's radius around each boid that it will detect and react to neighbors.
Active Toggle	Toggles that specific flock on and off.
Left Mouse Button	Click to add a circle obstacle for the boids to avoid, click it again to remove it.
Delete Obstacles	Deletes every user-created obstacle on the screen.

ABOUT

This flocking simulation was made as a final project for a Computer Graphics course. The original idea of a flocking simulation was created by Craig Reynolds with his simulation program Boids by employing 3 simple rules: alignment, cohesion, and separation. In nature, agents in a flock tend to move in the direction of its neighbors, move toward the center of its neighbors, and try to avoid its neighbors, so we can use those rules to create a simple simulation and adjust various parameters to visualize these adjustments in real time. We can add various other rules, such as obstacle avoidance (which I have added in this simulation) and goal seeking, among others, but these 3 rules make up the basis for a flock's behavior.

This specific implementation was created with the assistance of a wonderful series found below with some added features to make it interactive and more detailed.