Built-in primitives

Most atoms are YAML files in plugins/VEngine/effects/. The atoms on this page are built into the plugin, because they need numerical methods a formula cannot express. They are always available, even with an empty effects/ folder.

Use them like any atom: /ve play julia, or as a layer that sets parameters::

layers:
  - effect: julia
    particle: DUST
    gradient: ["#3a0ca3", "#f72585", "#ffbe0b"]
    parameters:
      radius: 1.8
      cOrbit: 0.06

Every parameter can also be animated with a parameters.<name> keyframe track. points of the fractal and Chladni atoms is capped at 4096.

Sphere and physics

sphere spreads its points evenly (Fibonacci sphere), without the crowding at the poles a latitude/longitude grid has. rk4_trajectory integrates a thrown particle with gravity, drag and curl-noise wind. Each step is one particle along the path. rk4_comet.yml is a ready example.

Strange attractors

One particle per integration step (steps = particle count), spinning around the vertical axis at angularSpeed. dt stretches or shortens the visible trajectory. Small parameter changes can turn a strange attractor into a single point or make it fly apart, so change them in small steps.

Fractals

julia draws the boundary of the Julia set of z² + c in the vertical plane. radius is the size in blocks of |z| = 2. cRe and cIm pick the set. A non-zero cOrbit moves c around that point on a circle at cSpeed radians per tick, so the set keeps morphing. depth (up to 64) is the number of inverse iteration steps: more is sharper. Gradient colors run along the boundary with colorMode: 0, outwards with colorMode: 1.

Sierpinski atoms place copies of a shape at its corners, depth levels deep (up to 16). The triangle and carpet stand in the vertical plane, the tetrahedron stands on its base, and the Menger sponge is drawn on the faces of its cube. pulse pushes the copies apart (and back) on every level at pulseSpeed, 0 keeps them still. Gradient colors give each corner copy its own band.

julia_portal.yml and sierpinski_pyramid.yml are ready examples.

Chladni figures

Sand on a vibrating plate: every grain starts at a random spot and slides to the nodal lines, where the plate does not move. The plate lies flat (horizontal).

Shared parameters: size (1.5, half width or radius in blocks), points (800), settle (60, ticks the sand takes to reach the lines), period (0, restarts the settling every that many ticks), jitter (0.02, how much grains shake), angularSpeed (0).

• chladni: n and m are the wave numbers along the two edges. mix = -1 and mix = 1 are the two classic figure families. Values in between and fractional n, m morph between figures.
• chladni_circle: n is the number of nodal diameters and m the number of nodal circles, whole numbers (up to 12 and 8). n2, m2 describe a second pattern added with weight mix: 0 is off, large values let the second pattern take over.

Animate mix with a keyframe track to watch the sand move from one figure to another. chladni_disc.yml does exactly that. Gradient colors show how strongly the plate vibrated where each grain started.

Formula atoms in effects/

The bundled YAML atoms can be played and used as layers the same way. Their parameters are listed in the parameters: block of each file.