[HN Gopher] Ambient Garden
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Ambient Garden
Author : fipar
Score : 281 points
Date : 2025-06-23 17:38 UTC (3 days ago)
(HTM) web link (ambient.garden)
(TXT) w3m dump (ambient.garden)
| yreg wrote:
| Beautiful. I really like how the static sky looks.
| LeoPanthera wrote:
| Reminds me of Tres Lunas and Maestro, created by British musician
| Mike Oldfield (more famous for "Tubular Bells"), in 2002 and
| 2004, making them very ahead of their time.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tres_Lunas#Computer_game
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maestro_(video_game)
| keyle wrote:
| Well executed.
|
| If you're into that sort of stuff there is also
| https://generative.fm by Alex Bainter.
|
| You can even play both at the same time!
|
| I drive both at the moment (Above the rain) through my Analog
| Heat with a good amount of saturation and play it softly. Bliss.
| mzs wrote:
| I use* this at work:
| https://mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/osmosisDroneGenerator.php?...
|
| * used*
| pierrec wrote:
| Author here, glad people are exploring this. Some fun details
| (should be in the "about" section but that's easy to miss):
|
| - It's open source, including the code that produced the audio:
| https://github.com/pac-dev/AmbientGarden
|
| - All the generated music is in just intonation. This was mostly
| for convenience at first (JI is easy to produce with code), but
| it led me down a massive harmonic rabbit hole in which I'm still
| located.
|
| I'm currently hacking away at the next iteration of this, where
| rhythm is fully embraced. I have to say the ambient genre was
| super convenient and allowed me to play fast and loose with
| synchronization, while really focusing on how harmony can be laid
| out in space. But rhythm was always in the books and I'm hoping
| it takes things to another level.
| rhet0rica wrote:
| Any chance of getting a master volume control added? This is
| gorgeous but Firefox doesn't have a per-tab volume slider.
| pierrec wrote:
| This is probably the most-requested feature so I'll give it a
| go. I initially didn't consider it because you're supposed to
| play it solo and use your device's overall volume control if
| desired, but I can see the appeal. However I really don't
| want to clutter the interface, so I might hide it behind a
| settings icon.
| mzs wrote:
| Thank you for making this, it's fantastic, please don't
| clutter the visual.
|
| A mono button would be nice but I can usually use
| accessibilty for that.
|
| Keyboard control?
| pierrec wrote:
| I've added a volume control. It's hidden behind the settings
| icon at the bottom.
| latexr wrote:
| I enjoyed exploring the (infinite?) landscape, but was then was
| a bit disappointed that that meant sacrificing the music, since
| there aren't any more trees. And yes, I did find the water bell
| structure.
|
| Maybe there wouldn't need to be trees _everywhere_ , but at
| least some clusters here and there, with different
| combinations, should incentivise exploration.
| rcarmo wrote:
| Very nice indeed. Congrats.
| isoprophlex wrote:
| loving all the sounds, but especially that resonant drone is
| just fantastic. well done.
|
| if you're hacking another iteration, i'm a 'wall of sound' type
| person... i was a bit sad that the 'listening radius' was so
| small / not changable. some of the sounds went out of focus too
| quickly for me even at the lowest autopilot speed, and this
| meant there were only a few sounds playing simultaneously at
| every moment.
| pierrec wrote:
| "Listening radius" is actually a good name for it, thanks. We
| need new terminology for spatial-harmonic composition! In
| this case, the locations and harmonic relationships were
| chosen with this specific radius in mind, so if you increase
| the radius, there might be some dissonance/clashing. But now
| that you've put the idea in my head, I also want to try it! I
| might go for a little settings screen with volume and radius
| then.
| pphysch wrote:
| Trees of different height could have larger radiuses too,
| maybe loosely negatively correlated with their pitch
| diggan wrote:
| > "Listening radius" is actually a good name for it,
| thanks. We need new terminology for spatial-harmonic
| composition
|
| Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I'd think you'd call
| that (the not at all overloaded term) "attenuation" or more
| complete: "distance attenuation". Maybe it helps for
| further browsing :)
|
| It seems like Wikipedia (
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attenuation_(disambiguation)
| ) has it under "Acoustic attenuation" but very physics-
| focused, not so much about the musicology, psychology or
| how it is used everywhere in audio.
| pierrec wrote:
| It's related, but you'll notice that most of the audio
| sources actually trigger an audible starting note when
| entering the radius. If anything, I'd rather make it
| clear that we're pretty far from anything physically
| accurate in that regard.
| pierrec wrote:
| Update: I've now added a listening radius setting. You can
| more that triple the original radius if desired. I chose the
| new maximum for the setting based on other limitations that
| showed up (ie. the radius glow is only visible on the
| detailed terrain material, which has its own radius before
| fading into the distant terrain material).
| davidcollantes wrote:
| I love what you have created! Would like to see more "plants".
| Not necessarily trees, but smaller bushes, and weeds,
| complementing the trees. I find there is too much empty space.
|
| Will star, and watch. Thank you!
| zengid wrote:
| very beautifully done!
|
| I think it would be cool to have an aeolian harp if you feel up
| for simulating "wind".
|
| Also since you're going into rhythm and are basing this on JI,
| a integer ratio polyrhythm system is lots of fun to make!
| NoSalt wrote:
| This is absolutely fantastic! As someone who has always wanted
| to try generating my own environments, like this and Minecraft,
| where would you recommend I start?
|
| I am a software developer, but have no experience with anything
| like this; I mostly do mobile and web apps (full stack). I just
| don't know where to start, where to "dip my toe in", so to
| speak.
|
| Is what you did here similar to how Minecraft worlds are
| generated?
|
| Thanks!
| HanClinto wrote:
| It's hard to state just how much I've been enjoying this as
| background coding music today. Super-enjoyable, and this is
| doing wonders for my focus today. Thank you so much for
| creating this! I've already sent the link out to several
| friends.
|
| I echo the request from others -- I like to have this as
| ambient noise while I'm doing other things, and having an in-
| app volume slider would be helpful for me as well.
|
| Regardless, this is a joy. Thank you so much for creating this
| and sharing it with us!
| rwmj wrote:
| This needs WebGL and hangs on "Loading" otherwise, but that's
| only evident if you look at the Javascript console. It'd be
| better if it said that WebGL is needed & not available on the
| page.
| pierrec wrote:
| I'm an HN regular so I kept in mind some people might have JS
| completely off. The page should correctly show the welcome
| screen and quick description even with zero JS (in fact those
| things should load instantly, everything else is deferred
| JS). "Loading" appears below that.
|
| I tried to make wise use of my time, and test/fix
| functionality on popular browsers and platforms including
| mobile, this really helped me figure out which aspects of
| compatibility testing to focus on, otherwise it's an infinite
| task. I'm not sure how common it is to have everything
| required to run this but specifically not WebGL, but if it
| is, I'll check and give the correct error message.
| hsn915 wrote:
| Really cool. This might become my goto ambient background
| solution.
| dartharva wrote:
| I read some of Dan Simmons' Hyperion while listening to this and
| I can't go back to reading the normal way. What a vibe!
| stephenpontes wrote:
| This immediately reminded me of the teamLab Planets [1]
| experience in Tokyo, Japan.
|
| Specifically "Flowers and People, Cannot Be Controlled but Live
| Together" [2] - the entire soundtrack for the experience was
| incredible, and this ambient garden took me right back. Thank you
| for sharing!
|
| [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7nODEETR4s
|
| [2] https://music.apple.com/jp/artist/hideaki-
| takahashi/30588056...
| bravesoul2 wrote:
| Ha ha me too! Made a similar comment. I can see myself coming
| back to this site many times.
| pierrec wrote:
| It's true, this project was always related to exhibits with
| audio sources laid out in space. While doing research for this,
| I came across software specifically designed to help lay out
| audio sources in exhibits. I hadn't heard of teamLabs though,
| some of their art seem almost like physical versions of
| ambient.garden!
| calrain wrote:
| This is wonderful, thank you
| zannabianca1997 wrote:
| What's with the gigantic "water bell" thing? Anyway would be cool
| for the trees to go on to infinity
| titouanch wrote:
| I was wondering the same thing, I thought it would make a cool
| ominous sound, but the structure doesn't seem to do anything.
| latexr wrote:
| It does have sound. Walk on top of it.
| benrutter wrote:
| I remember this! It's beautiful, and a nice reminder that there
| are still lots of people on the internet creating wonderful
| things just for the joy of it.
| 5- wrote:
| reminds me of proteus:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proteus_(video_game)
|
| (i liked that it had some minimal interactivity/gameplay).
|
| any others like it?
| ethan_smith wrote:
| Check out Endless Forest, Flower, Electroplankton, and
| Panoramical - all offer similar meditative interactive
| audiovisual experiences with varying degrees of gameplay.
| bravesoul2 wrote:
| That's something. Gives me teamLab [1] vibes. Really like it. The
| mix of music which is relaxing and the scenery and the way it
| moves and that it is generative across what you see and hear.
| Can't wait to chuck this on a big screen.
|
| 1. https://www.teamlab.art/
| meindnoch wrote:
| What's that alien artifact with the "water bell" label?
| latexr wrote:
| If you want to fly through the scenery, increase the maximum
| value on the Speed slider:
| document.getElementById("speedin").max = 100
| CuriouslyC wrote:
| Well done! Makes me imagine procedural ambient music generated by
| characters with "personalities" exploring the garden according to
| some preference function. They could have sonic tastes and
| crave/grow fatigued from various sounds to create an emotional
| drive in the music.
| nicebloom wrote:
| This is awesome. Have you considered trying to add spatial audio?
| pierrec wrote:
| I would love to add both VR and spatial audio, but as of now, I
| wouldn't have anything to test it on!
| pugworthy wrote:
| VR would be amazing I think. To fly through the space slowly,
| drifting along.
| tshadley wrote:
| Thank you, amazing, fresh.
| chipsrafferty wrote:
| Very cool project. Kudos for making it mobile friendly too.
|
| The world appears to be infinite, why not make the trees also
| infinitely procedurally generated? Then you could get the
| experience of "do I stay here where the sound is good, or do I
| explore in search of something new, and perhaps better?"
|
| With a few more instrument types, and variable density, you could
| in theory create an auditory "Library of Babel", where any song
| or sound is in theory possible to discover... If you only find
| the right combination of plants.
|
| Also you should add animals, like turtles and rabbits - the sound
| would change because instead of being stationary, they move
| towards/away from you. Different types of animals could have
| different movement patterns, producing a variety of effects.
| pierrec wrote:
| This was basically the original plan, but I had to make some
| choices with my limited resources. After going down the path of
| "manually" placing audio sources, it becomes difficult to
| switch to procedural layout, I would basically have to start
| over from scratch in terms of composition. Nonetheless I might
| revisit it in the future as I've improved my ability to lay out
| the sound, it might be easier to expand it considerably.
| darzu wrote:
| Everyone's talking about the music but I also love the dot
| rendering system you're using for terrain and plants! Very neat
| effect, simple but it's a nice style. I'd love to see a whole
| forest done like this, maybe a flowing river too.
| mzs wrote:
| I agree, imagine this as a TUI in xterm-256!
| layer8 wrote:
| Imagine you're crash-landing on an alien planet and that's the
| environment you find yourself in. Truly terrifying.
| pugworthy wrote:
| It would be interesting to have some kind of wildlife moving
| about that generated sounds. Like dot drawn butterflies or birds
| that emitted sounds and created some new kinds of sound and
| pattern variation.
| huhtenberg wrote:
| The audio plays for 2 seconds after clicking "Start", then it
| cuts off and the following pops up on the console:
| Uncaught (in promise) DOMException: The play method is not
| allowed by the user agent or the platform in the current
| context, possibly because the user denied permission.
|
| Firefox on Windows.
| pierrec wrote:
| Firefox on Windows happens to be my main browser and one of the
| first things I already verified to work, so you'll have to be
| more specific!
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(page generated 2025-06-26 23:01 UTC)