Preparing your first spark…
A single spark. Watch the first branches find their way out.
Your growing world
GrowingTap or drag near the center to plant seeds. Choose Inspect to discover when a particle joined.
- Attached particles
- 1
- Wandering particles
- 0
Plant a seed to start another branch, or inspect the growing pattern.
Keyboard controls
Tab to the canvas. Arrow keys move the tool marker. Enter plants a seed or inspects a nearby particle. Space pauses or resumes. Escape clears the selection. Seeds can be planted near the center, up to 128 per pattern.
Change the conditionsTune your pattern
Try one change at a time. New growth responds immediately.
Replay starts the same shape and random sequence with your current settings. New pattern changes the random sequence. Both clear seeds you planted. Color and view options affect the display only.
Order, out of chance
Why does it branch?
This is diffusion-limited aggregation, or DLA. Tiny local encounters build a structure that nobody planned.
Start somewhere.
A spark, ring, or line gives the pattern its first attached particles. Plant a few seeds of your own near the center to change its starting shape.
Let chance take a walk.
Free particles launch around the outside and wander one step at a time. When one touches the structure, stickiness decides whether it joins.
The tips get there first.
Exposed tips meet wandering particles more easily than sheltered gaps. As tips grow outward, the spaces between branches become harder to reach.
Try this
Same rules.
Different beginnings.
- Grow a ring. Try Ring, pause, and inspect the older particles near its center. Where do the newest branches appear?
- Make attachment less certain. Lower stickiness. A particle can pass an exposed tip without joining. How does the next growth change?
- Leave your mark. Pause, plant a short row of seeds, then resume. Save the result with your favorite palette.
Read the view: The solid shape is attached particles; the small moving dots are free particles. Color follows attachment order. The faint launch ring marks where new walkers begin. Follow growth keeps the structure in view; use the zoom buttons for a closer look.
This is a two-dimensional grid model inspired by Witten and Sander’s original DLA work (1981). The ember-like colors are artistic: this is not a fire model, and branching alone does not reproduce the physics of a snowflake. Growth pauses when the page is hidden or the canvas is out of view. Reload starts a new session.
Langton’s Ant
Boids