[HN Gopher] Origami Simulator
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       Origami Simulator
        
       Author : diginova
       Score  : 241 points
       Date   : 2024-02-01 07:07 UTC (2 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (origamisimulator.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (origamisimulator.org)
        
       | thomasfromcdnjs wrote:
       | Well I just developed a love for origami...
        
       | sufficer wrote:
       | This is really cool. I'm gonna make some origami noob stuff irl
       | now
        
       | ninacomputer wrote:
       | Whoa. This was way more impressive than I expected! And now I'm
       | learning about Kirigami (and hoping my ancestors forgive me for
       | not knowing this already).
        
       | fuzzythinker wrote:
       | I recently made one that is simulates a step-by-step folding. The
       | player supports play, replay, forward, back, and restart. The
       | Creator generates the domain specific steps via the UI. It can do
       | most squash, petal, crimp, rabbit ear, and inside & outside
       | reverse folds. Follow the tutorial in the /create page to learn
       | more.
       | 
       | https://foldmation.com
       | 
       | Edit: Best viewed on a computer/tablet. Please revisit if you're
       | on a mobile.
        
         | lovegrenoble wrote:
         | I love little web gems like this, here another one:
         | https://sharkle.com
        
           | diginova wrote:
           | Actually I landed on this website using Sharkle so credits to
           | that!
        
         | setr wrote:
         | I'm going to complain about this, because I have attempted to
         | follow several origami books in the past to utter failure,
         | usually due to a single cursed step that I simply could not
         | parse (and video-tutorials always corresponding to a similar
         | but different design) -- I want this to be a useful thing.
         | 
         | Using video control icons for operations that have nothing to
         | do with the associated video control behavior is insanity.
         | 
         | Play seems to mean play the current step animation (not
         | sequence of steps)
         | 
         | Restart seems to mean replay the current step animation (not
         | restart the whole sequence)
         | 
         | Fast Forward/Backwards seems to mean move one step
         | forwards/backwards
         | 
         | Not sure what video mechanic |<- corresponds to, but >| is
         | usually "next video", and here it means "restart sequence"
         | 
         | It also irks me that you can't skip to a specific step by
         | clicking the item in the list
         | 
         | restarting the animation sometimes resets the camera position,
         | defeating the purpose of being 3D. Crane steps 9,10,11 seems to
         | do this consistently
         | 
         | I actually have no idea why there's an animation in the first
         | place. It seems like it's always two-frames -- one to show the
         | arrows, the other to show eventual crease? Since it doesn't
         | actually animate into the next image, I think this would be
         | better off as simply a toggle flag to view and persist
         | 
         | Relevant points in the current step should probably be
         | perpetually highlighted, rather than only on-hover. On hover,
         | do an additional highlight (bigger circle, brighter color, etc)
         | to denote the specific number hovered on.
        
           | crispyambulance wrote:
           | > I have attempted to follow several origami books in the
           | past to utter failure, usually due to a single cursed step
           | that I simply could not parse
           | 
           | That's part of the challenge of origami books. The step-by-
           | step graphical fold-notation and vocabulary is, still, the
           | best way to communicate this stuff. It's hard but rewarding
           | if you see it like a puzzle. Just put it aside and come back
           | to it or start over with larger paper.
           | 
           | The 3d animation stuff is nice. This latest effort in the OP
           | looks great. It's not how one actually folds stuff, however,
           | unless it's a regular tessellation (for making a hull). For
           | things like animals, one almost never starts with creases
           | first and then simultaneous movement of the whole thing into
           | the final shape.
        
           | pimlottc wrote:
           | I agree with all this, and also: don't use the "play" icon as
           | a "current step" indicator on the steps list, I kept trying
           | to click it. People will expect a "play" icon to be a button.
           | 
           | I also had no clue that you could change the viewpoint,
           | there's no indication that this is possible aside from the
           | subtle mouse cursor, which I didn't notice.
           | 
           | Actually animating the folds would be useful. This still
           | mostly relies on the user understanding the meaning of the
           | dotted/dashed lines, especially since the folding arrows are
           | only shown briefly. I don't think I would be able to follow
           | what's happening if I didn't already know how the lines work.
           | Step 4 of the Crane is especially confusing without
           | animation.
        
             | bawana wrote:
             | agree. also labels on the vertices would be helpful
        
         | moffkalast wrote:
         | Very nice, but it would be cool if the camera view wouldn't
         | reset every time you go ahead one step, it's very disorienting.
        
       | ur-whale wrote:
       | Very nice sim, but looks like the self-intersection problem isn't
       | solved ... the crane example under strain goes sideways.
        
         | Kluggy wrote:
         | The paper airplane one passes though itself multiple times
         | during the fold from 60%-100%
        
       | flyrain wrote:
       | Pretty cool! I like it.
        
       | foehrenwald wrote:
       | If you grab and move really fast the simulator breaks...
        
       | 01HNNWZ0MV43FF wrote:
       | Do I need multi-touch? I tried grabbing with my mouse and it just
       | wiggled the paper..
        
       | bbor wrote:
       | I think this woman is amazing, and that this is only a first step
       | to using three.js/webgpu both for instructional and engineering
       | use. If anyone wants to read some context and analyis on this
       | topic, I wrote a paper on it a few years back for Georgia Tech's
       | Educational Technology course:
       | 
       | https://github.com/robbwdoering/origamiodyssey/blob/main/CS6...
       | 
       | The most interesting tidbit, for me, is the connection to Erik
       | Demaine's other work on computational origami, and specifically
       | the .FOLD file format specification. As I show in that repo it
       | needs augmentation, but I hope it's the seed a one-day
       | flourishing computational origami community.
        
       | mensetmanusman wrote:
       | This is one of many impressive projects, awesome to see someone
       | with passion continue to execute and finish.
        
       | metflex wrote:
       | this deserves 2000000 points
        
         | ProllyInfamous wrote:
         | I just purchased the most-capable GPU that my motherboard can
         | handle, and this has been quite a wonderful and informative
         | stress-test.
         | 
         | 120Hz never looked so brilliant, and the in-browser
         | simplicity/accessibility/controls are just astonishingly
         | breath-taking.
         | 
         | C/C/ +1
        
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       (page generated 2024-02-03 23:01 UTC)