EXP-015generativeLive
Murmuration.
Thousands of simulated starlings flying as one animal. Every bird follows the same three local rules (keep your distance, match your neighbors, drift toward the group) and nobody is in charge. The shape you're watching is nobody's decision. Your cursor is the hawk.
Three rules · No leader
You are the hawk.
Drift through the flock and it parts around you. Press and hold to dive; let go and watch it fold back together.
Bench notes
- The rules
- Each bird sees only its nearest few neighbors: it separates when crowded, aligns with their heading, and drifts toward their center. Add a slow wandering wind and that's the entire program. Everything that looks choreographed is emergence.
- The hawk
- Drift near the flock and it bulges away from you. Press and hold to dive and it shatters; release and it folds back together. Real murmurations do exactly this, which is most of why they exist: a falcon can't pick one bird out of a shape that never stops changing.
- The speed
- Up to four thousand birds at sixty frames a second, each one a short ink stroke along its own heading. The counter above the flock is live, not decorative.