Zen Photon Garden

I'm amazed that this runs wholly on the CPU. Seriously tempted to build a WebGL demo using similar concepts, with the addition of lenses and other optical geometry. It'd be tough to beat this in terms of the sheer cool factor, though.

Great work! I just managed to create a godly looking "lolcat" - http://www.bit.ly/ZKtfnS ;)

If create any closed shape (using lines set at 100% reflective) around the light source, it seems to stop working so nicely. Are the rays just being reflected around in an infinite loop?

> If it gets popular, I’d love to create an iOS app. The web site works on iOS in a minimal capacity, but it’s slow and not at all fun to use. Sculpting with light on the iPad seems like a natural fit.

Why not instead make it animate to music and turn it into a good old Winamp or XMMS plugin? :)

I wonder what an actual artist could do with this. I was able to make a hallway by playing with perspective: http://zenphoton.com/#AAQAAkAB9gCNlAAKAbwA0AIzANAAVakBoQDyAk...

Also, you may want to integrate a URL shortener with the 'Share link' button... https://developers.google.com/api-client-library/javascript/...

I love it! I am tempted to add the function to be able to add more light sources with different colors, though it might need a different name for that garden.

Very nice! Feels very atmospheric and relaxing.

It makes me think of a bit of a Matrioshka Brain structure (for example from the Alistair Reynolds story Troika), with a star and surrounding shells that capture ever more of the light.

Technically, it takes a similar approach to "real time" raytracing as the cycles render engine in Blender, increasing the number of samples (thus decreasing the noise) over time.

I like visual "toy" apps, interactive if you like and slow self-changing if you don't. Porting this to iOS would be great; one of those "if you don't I will" sorta things.

I love this. It's so pleasing to look at.

Really cool (in a Zen kind of way)! :)

This is gorgeous!