[HN Gopher] Alma - Generative Graphics Creator
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       Alma - Generative Graphics Creator
        
       Author : kretaceous
       Score  : 66 points
       Date   : 2022-12-10 17:48 UTC (5 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.alma.sh)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.alma.sh)
        
       | throwoutway wrote:
       | Is there an open source library for these
       | visualization/generator?
       | 
       | This one in particular looks really nice!! I'd like to use it to
       | build something completely unrelated
        
         | troymc wrote:
         | Check out "geometry nodes" in Blender (which is open source).
        
         | JellyBeanThief wrote:
         | Not a library, but https://github.com/GimelStudio/GimelStudio
         | is in alpha and is aiming at the same problems.
        
       | ckrapu wrote:
       | This seems like it would be an awesome tool for visualizing
       | orbitals / harmonics in quantum mechanics. It looks like Bessel
       | functions are within the space of feasible functions you can
       | make.
        
       | squarefoot wrote:
       | Does anyone know of a library allowing the creation of graphical
       | nodes and connections much like that software, then generating
       | linked structures as output? For example, if I create some
       | objects and define internal parameters, then connect inputs and
       | outputs, it should produce structures with those parameters as
       | elements, plus other fields representing pointers (or equivalents
       | to) that link together the structures. Native low level languages
       | would be better, both for speed and for easier integration in
       | other software with an eye for very small systems or even
       | microcontrollers.
        
       | rikroots wrote:
       | I love this idea of low-code generative art ... but I have no
       | idea about what's going on here. This is probably (I assume)
       | because I've never played/learned about the OpenGL Shading
       | Language, the concepts of which the nodes are closely tied to?
        
         | kroltan wrote:
         | Sort of. It's a pretty low-level execution graph, so you're
         | seeing maths being done one operation at a time (then a node
         | that does a lot of work all at once in code, which is unhelpful
         | if you don't literally know GLSL)
         | 
         | Besides that, I would say you need to know about how a
         | pixel/fragment shader works, which can be explained without any
         | OpenGL details:
         | 
         | It is a program that runs once for each pixel of the screen,
         | taking its coordinates within the screen as input (called UV),
         | and outputting an RGB value.
         | 
         | The tricky part is not related to graphics specifically, but
         | thinking in this stateless, independent, massively paralel way.
        
       | amelius wrote:
       | There seems to be no way to inspect the intermediate signals.
       | This makes it difficult to understand what you're actually
       | looking at.
        
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       (page generated 2022-12-10 23:00 UTC)