core boids

so it’s been nearly 6 years since i posted here about pyboids…  and since i love the idea of the boids algorithm so much (and was trying to play with core animation), i decided to try to write boids using core animation.  it’s imperfect, but it works (and, technically speaking, it is 3d, although i don’t really have the functionality to rotate and such to prove it… well, not yet anyway).

the cool thing is that (theoretically speaking), this same code can easily run (without many changes) on an iOS device.  core animation itself is really powerful - it helps make snazzy apps possible by making animations really simple (in many cases, core animation takes care of the animation for you, automagically and behind the scenes).

for those who don’t know, boids is an algorithm developed by craig reynolds to simulate the flight of birds.  a good explanation (and pseudocode) of the algorithm can be found here.