Skip directly to content

Actionscript

Kohonen Map in Actionscript 3

on Tue, 05/01/2012 - 21:52

Kohonen Map in Actionscript 3

This image is the output of a Kohonen Map, also called a self-organizing map, which is a type of simple neural network, mostly used for sorting and grouping large data sets. I am fairly happy with the results.

This is something I have wanted to do for about four years, starting with a project I worked on back in 2008. Click the image to launch the app. Once launched, click "PLAY/PAUSE" to begin; click "RESET" to restart the sorting process, and change the value in the "grid size" input field to change the dimensions of the color grid. Be careful; anything above 100 (e.g., 10,000 squares) will begin to run slowly.

To create the app, I started with Processing source code I found at jjguy.com. Translating the code to Actionscript 3 took about four hours, and another four to tweak and test and modify to accommodate Flash-specific functionality. All in all, it was surprisingly easy.

The code follows. There are three parts; Main.as, which is contains the UI, global variables, and initialization code; SOM.as, which is the code for the map, and Node.as, which contains the code for the individual blocks of color.

All of the source code, including compiled .swf, can be downloaded here.

 

Main.as

package {
    import flash.display.Sprite;
	import flash.display.StageAlign;
	import flash.display.StageScaleMode;
    import flash.events.Event;
	import flash.events.MouseEvent;
	import flash.events.TimerEvent;
	import flash.text.TextField;
	import flash.text.TextFieldType;
	import flash.text.TextFormat;
	import flash.utils.Timer;
    [SWF(width=720,height=480,frameRate=32,backgroundColor=0x000000)]
    public class Main extends Sprite {
		[Embed(
			source='C:/WINDOWS/Fonts/ARIAL.TTF', 
			fontName='ArialEmbed', 
			unicodeRange='U+0020-U+002F,U+0030-U+0039,U+003A-U+0040,U+0041-U+005A,U+005B-U+0060,U+0061-U+007A,U+007B-U+007E', 
			mimeType="application/x-font-truetype", embedAsCFF="false"
		)]
		private static var _arialEmbed:Class;
		
		internal var _timer:Timer;

		private var isPlaying:Boolean = false;
		
		private var btnPlayPause:Sprite;
		private var btnReset:Sprite;
		private var txtIterations:TextField;
		private var txtGridSize:TextField;
		private var colorTextBG:int = 0xcccccc;
		private var btnTextFormat:TextFormat = new TextFormat("ArialEmbed",12,0x333333,null,null,null,null,null,"center");
		private var labelTextFormat:TextFormat = new TextFormat("ArialEmbed",12,0xededed,null,null,null,null,null,"right");
		private var inputTextFormat:TextFormat = new TextFormat("ArialEmbed",12,0x000000,null,null,null,null,null,"left");

		private var som:SOM;
		private var iter:int;
		private var maxIters:int = 4000;
		public var screenW:int=480;
		public var screenH:int=480;
		private var gridSize:int = 40;

		private var rgb:Array = [
			[1,1,1],
			[0,0,0],
			[1,0,1],
			[1,0,0],
			[0,1,0],
			[0,0,1],
			[1,1,0],
			[0,1,1],
			[1,.4,.4],
			[.25,.25,.25]
		];
		
        public function Main():void {
            addEventListener(Event.ADDED_TO_STAGE,onAddedToStage);
        }
        private function onAddedToStage(e:Event):void {
            removeEventListener(Event.ADDED_TO_STAGE,onAddedToStage);
			stage.scaleMode = StageScaleMode.NO_SCALE;
			stage.align = StageAlign.TOP_LEFT;
            init();
        }
        private function init():void {
			_timer = new Timer(10);
			_timer.addEventListener(TimerEvent.TIMER,onTimer);
			initInterface();
			initMap();
			_timer.start();
        }
		
		/*	create and populate the UI elements	*/
		private function initInterface():void {
			var txtIterationsLabel:TextField = getTextField("Iterations",10,160,80,20,labelTextFormat);
			addChild(txtIterationsLabel);
			
			txtIterations = getTextField("0",100,160,50,20,labelTextFormat);
			txtIterations.selectable = false;
			addChild(txtIterations);
			
			var txtGridSizeLabel:TextField = getTextField("GRID SIZE",10,200,80,20,labelTextFormat);
			addChild(txtGridSizeLabel);
			
			txtGridSize = getTextField(gridSize.toString(),100,200,80,20,inputTextFormat);
			txtGridSize.background = true;
			txtGridSize.backgroundColor = 0xffffff;
			txtGridSize.border = true;
			txtGridSize.borderColor=0xcccccc;
			txtGridSize.type = TextFieldType.INPUT;
			txtGridSize.restrict = "0-9";
			addChild(txtGridSize);
			
			var playPauseButton:Sprite = getTextButton("PLAY/PAUSE",20,300,80,20);
			playPauseButton.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK,function(e:Event):void {
				isPlaying = !isPlaying;
			});
			addChild(playPauseButton);
			
			var resetButton:Sprite = getTextButton("RESET",120,300,80,20);
			resetButton.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK,function(e:Event):void {
				iter=1;
				gridSize = parseInt(txtGridSize.text);
				maxIters = gridSize*100;
				som.init(maxIters,gridSize,gridSize);
				updateMap();
			});
			addChild(resetButton);
		
		}
		
		/*	create and initialize an instance of the map 	*/
		private function initMap():void {
			som = new SOM(gridSize,gridSize, 3,screenW,screenH);
			som.x = 240;
			som.y = 0;
			addChild(som);
			iter = 1;	
			som.init(maxIters,gridSize,gridSize);
			updateMap();
		}
		
		/*	called on every tick of the timer	*/
		private function onTimer(e:TimerEvent):void {
			if(isPlaying) updateMap();
			e.updateAfterEvent();
		}
		
		/*	tell the map to make another iterations through the data, then render it to the screen	*/
		private function updateMap():void {
			var t:int = Math.floor(Math.random()*rgb.length);
			if (iter < maxIters){
				som.train(iter, rgb[t]);
				som.render();
				txtIterations.text = iter.toString();
				iter++;
			}
		}
		
		/*	functions for building interface elements	*/
		private function getTextField(txt:String,x:int,y:int,w:int,h:int,format:TextFormat):TextField {
			var tf:TextField = new TextField();
			tf.x = x;
			tf.y = y;
			tf.width = w;
			tf.height = h;
			tf.embedFonts = true;
			tf.text = txt;
			tf.setTextFormat(format);
			tf.defaultTextFormat = format;
			return tf;
		}
		private function getTextButton(txt:String,x:int,y:int,w:int,h:int):Sprite {
			var s:Sprite = new Sprite();
			s.x = x;
			s.y = y;
			s.graphics.lineStyle(1,0x808080,1,true);
			s.graphics.beginFill(colorTextBG,1);
			s.graphics.drawRect(0,0,w,h);
			s.graphics.endFill();
			s.buttonMode=true;
			s.mouseChildren = false;
			s.useHandCursor=true;
			var t:TextField = new TextField();
			t.width=w;
			t.height=h;
			t.selectable = false;
			t.embedFonts = true;
			t.text = txt;
			t.setTextFormat(btnTextFormat);
			t.defaultTextFormat = btnTextFormat;
			t.wordWrap = false;
			t.multiline=false;
			s.addChild(t);
			return s;
		}
    }
}

 

SOM.as

package {
	import flash.display.Bitmap;
	import flash.display.BitmapData;
	import flash.display.Sprite;
	import flash.geom.Point;
	import flash.geom.Rectangle;
	public class SOM extends Sprite {
		public var mapWidth:int;
		public var mapHeight:int;
		public var nodes:Array;
		public var radius:Number;
		public var timeConstant:Number;
		public var learnRate:Number = 0.05;
		public var inputDimension:int;
		private var pixPerNodeW:Number;
		private var pixPerNodeH:Number;
		
		private var canvasWidth:int;
		private var canvasHeight:int;
		private var canvasData:BitmapData;
		private var canvas:Bitmap;
		
		public var learnDecay:Number;
		public var radiusDecay:Number;
		
		/*	constructor	*/
		public function SOM(w:int,h:int,n:int,mapW:int,mapH:int):void {
			mapWidth = w;
			mapHeight = h;
			radius = (h + w) / 2;
			inputDimension = n;
			canvasWidth = mapW;
			canvasHeight = mapH;
			canvasData = new BitmapData(canvasWidth,canvasHeight,false,0x000000);
			canvas = new Bitmap(canvasData);
			addChild(canvas);
			
		}
		/*	initialize the map	*/
		public function init(iterations:int,w:int,h:int):void {
			mapWidth = w;
			mapHeight = h;
			radius = (h + w) / 2;
			pixPerNodeW = canvasWidth/mapWidth;
			pixPerNodeH = canvasHeight/mapHeight;
			nodes = [];
			for(var i:int = 0; i < mapHeight; i++){
				nodes[i] = [];
				for(var j:int = 0; j < mapWidth; j++) {
					nodes[i][j] = new Node(inputDimension, mapHeight, mapWidth);
					nodes[i][j].x = i;
					nodes[i][j].y = j;
				}//for j
			}//for i
			timeConstant = iterations/Math.log(radius);
			learnDecay = learnRate;
			radiusDecay = (mapWidth + mapHeight) / 2;
		}
		/*	iterate through and update the weights of each node	*/
		public function train(i:int,w:Array):void {  
			radiusDecay = radius*Math.exp(-(i/timeConstant));
			learnDecay = learnRate*Math.exp(-(i/timeConstant));
			//get best matching unit
			var ndxComposite:int = bestMatch(w);
			var x:int = ndxComposite >> 16;
			var y:int = ndxComposite & 0x0000FFFF;
			//scale best match and neighbors...
			for(var a:int = 0; a < mapHeight; a++) {
				for(var b:int = 0; b < mapWidth; b++) {
					var d:Number = dist(nodes[x][y].x, nodes[x][y].y, nodes[a][b].x, nodes[a][b].y);
					var influence:Number = Math.exp((-1 * Math.pow(d,2)) / (2*radiusDecay*i));
					if (d < radiusDecay) {      
						for(var k:int = 0; k < inputDimension; k++) {
							nodes[a][b].w[k] += influence * learnDecay * (w[k] - nodes[a][b].w[k]);
						}//for k
					}	//if d
				} //for j
			} // for i
		} // train()
		
		
		/*	functions used by training method, for calculating node weights and distances	*/
		public function dist(x1:Number,y1:Number,x2:Number,y2:Number):Number {
			return Math.sqrt( Math.pow(x2 - x1,2) + Math.pow(y2 - y1,2) );
		}
		public function distance(node1:Node, node2:Node):Number {
			return Math.sqrt( Math.pow(node2.x - node1.x,2) + Math.pow(node2.y - node1.y,2) );	
		}
		public function bestMatch(w:Array):int {
			var minDist:Number = Math.sqrt(inputDimension);
			var minIndex:int = 0;
			for (var i:int = 0; i < mapHeight; i++) {
				for (var j:int = 0; j < mapWidth; j++) {
				var tmp:Number = weight_distance(nodes[i][j].w, w);
					if (tmp < minDist) {
						minDist = tmp;
						minIndex = (i << 16) + j;
					}  //if
				} //for j
			} //for i
			return minIndex;
		}
		public function weight_distance(x:Array, y:Array):Number {
			if (x.length != y.length) {
				//	trace("Error in SOM::distance(): array lengths don't match");
			}
			var tmp:Number = 0.0;
			for(var i:int = 0; i < x.length; i++) {
				tmp += Math.pow( (x[i] - y[i]),2);
			}
			tmp = Math.sqrt(tmp);
			return tmp;
		}
		
		/*	render node information to the screen	*/
		public function render():void {
			for(var i:int = 0; i < mapWidth; i++) {
				for(var j:int = 0; j < mapHeight; j++) {
					var r:Number = (nodes[i][j].w[0]*255);
					var g:Number = (nodes[i][j].w[1]*255);
					var b:Number = (nodes[i][j].w[2]*255);
					var c:Number = r << 16 ^ g << 8 ^ b;
					canvasData.fillRect(new Rectangle(i*pixPerNodeW, j*pixPerNodeH, pixPerNodeW, pixPerNodeH),c);
				} // for j
			} // for i
		} // render()
	}
}

 

Node.as

package {
	public class Node {
		public var x:int;
		public var y:int;
		public var weightCount:int;
		public var w:Array;
		public function Node(n:int,X:int,Y:int):void {
			x = X;
			y = Y;
			weightCount = n;
			w = [];
			for(var i:int = 0;i<weightCount;i++) {
				w.push(Math.random()*.5+.25);
			}
		}
	}
}

 

3D Langton's Ant, in Actionscript 3 Using Away3d

on Thu, 04/12/2012 - 17:23

Fast on the heels of the 3D Langton's Ants in Javascript  using Three.js, here is a version done in Actionscript 3 using Away3d. This will look better on faster computers. Click the image to launch the experiment.

Other than some additional rotation around the main axis, it is identical to the Javascript version, including a glitch that kicks in somewhere around 1200 cubes. In the Javascript version, Chrome would crash at around 700 cubes. In this version, it starts to get a little glitchy at 1600, then progressively more glitchy until it eventually stops updating the screen completely. Oddly, the script continues to run; you will be able to see the number of cubes increment in the upper left corner. I am not sure if this is a hard limit built into Away3d, or the Flash 3D API, or if there is a memory limit of some kind being reached. I suspect - based on the occasional warnings which popped up during development - that it is a hard-coded polygon limit within Away3d. There is probably some way around it, but I don't (yet) have the know-how to go in and fix it.

Anyway, here is the code for the experiment. Comment out any lines which use the "org.eccesignum.*" files; they assume you have the code for my custom InfoPanel in your library path.

package {
	import away3d.cameras.Camera3D;
	import away3d.containers.ObjectContainer3D;
	import away3d.containers.Scene3D;
	import away3d.containers.View3D;
	import away3d.entities.Mesh;
	import away3d.lights.DirectionalLight;
	import away3d.lights.PointLight;
	import away3d.materials.ColorMaterial;
	import away3d.materials.lightpickers.*;
	import away3d.primitives.SphereGeometry;
	import away3d.primitives.CubeGeometry;
	
	import flash.display.Sprite;
	import flash.display.StageAlign;
	import flash.display.StageScaleMode;
	import flash.events.Event;
	import flash.events.MouseEvent;
	import flash.events.TimerEvent;
	import flash.geom.Vector3D;
	import flash.utils.Timer;
	
	import org.eccesignum.utilities.InfoPanel;
	
	[SWF(width=640,height=480,frameRate=32,backgroundColor=0x000000)]
	
	public class Main extends Sprite {
		internal var _info:InfoPanel;
		private var view:View3D;
		private var cubeContainer:ObjectContainer3D;
		private var scene:Scene3D;
		private var camera:Camera3D;
		private var directionalLight:DirectionalLight;
		private var lightPicker:StaticLightPicker
		private var cMaterial:ColorMaterial;
		private var antX:Number = 32,
			antY:Number = 32,
			antZ:Number = 32,
			nextX:Number,
			nextY:Number,
			nextZ:Number,
			cellsX:int = 64,
			cellsY:int = 64,
			cellsZ:int = 64,
			cellWidth:int = 8,
			cellHeight:int = 8,
			cellDepth:int = 8,
			antSize:int = 7,
			maxDirections:Number = 8,
			colorMultiplier:Number = Math.round(256/cellsX),
			xOff:Number = cellsX/2*cellWidth,
			yOff:Number = cellsY/2*cellHeight,
			zOff:Number = cellsZ/2*cellDepth,
			objects:Array,
			antDirection:Number = 1,
			filledCells:int = 0;
		
		public function Main():void {
			addEventListener(Event.ADDED_TO_STAGE,onAddedToStage);
		}
		private function onAddedToStage(e:Event):void {
			removeEventListener(Event.ADDED_TO_STAGE,onAddedToStage);
			stage.scaleMode = StageScaleMode.NO_SCALE;
			stage.align = StageAlign.TOP_LEFT;
			init();
		}
		private function init():void {
			_info = new InfoPanel(this,100,50);
			scene = new Scene3D();
			camera = new Camera3D();
			view = new View3D(null,camera);
			view.antiAlias = 2;
			camera.x = 0;
			camera.z = 150;
			camera.y = -300;
			cubeContainer = new ObjectContainer3D();
			cubeContainer.rotationY=0;
			cubeContainer.rotationZ=45;
			
			directionalLight = new DirectionalLight(0,150,-300);
			directionalLight.diffuse = 1;
			directionalLight.specular = 0.3;
			directionalLight.color=0xffffff;
			scene.addChild(directionalLight);
			lightPicker = new StaticLightPicker([directionalLight]);
			
			cMaterial = new ColorMaterial(0x999999);
			cMaterial.lightPicker  = lightPicker;
			
			scene.addChild(cubeContainer);
			camera.lookAt(new Vector3D(0,0,0));
			view.scene = scene;
			addChild(view);

			objects = new Array(cellsX);
			for(var i:int=0;i<objects.length;i++) {
				objects[i] = new Array(cellsY);
				for(var j:int=0;j<objects[i].length;j++) {
					objects[i][j] = new Array(cellsZ);
				}
			}
			view.render();
			addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME,onEnterFrame);
		}
		private function onEnterFrame(e:Event):void {
			if(!objects[antX][antY][antZ]) {
				antDirection++;
				if(antDirection == maxDirections) antDirection = 0;
				addObject(antX,antY,antZ);
			} else {
				removeObject(antX,antY,antZ);
				antDirection--;
				if(antDirection == -1) antDirection = maxDirections-1;
			}
			switch(antDirection) {
				case 0:
					antZ--;
					break;
				case 1:
					antX++;
					break;
				case 2:
					antY++;
					break;
				case 3:
					antX--;
					break;
				case 4:
					antZ++;
					break;
				case 5:
					antX++;
					break;
				case 6:
					antY--;
					break;
				case 7:
					antX--;
					break;
				default:
					break;
			}
			if(antY < 0) antY += cellsY;
			if(antY >= cellsY) antY -= cellsY;
			if(antX < 0) antX += cellsX;
			if(antX >= cellsX) antX -= cellsX;
			if(antZ < 0) antZ += cellsZ;
			if(antZ >= cellsZ) antZ -= cellsZ;

			cubeContainer.rotationZ+=.5;
			cubeContainer.rotationY+=.5;
			cubeContainer.rotationX+=.5;
			_info.update(filledCells.toString(),true);
			view.render();
		}
		private function addObject(x:int,y:int,z:int):void {
			var cGeometry:CubeGeometry = new CubeGeometry();
				cGeometry.width = antSize;
				cGeometry.height = antSize;
				cGeometry.depth = antSize;
			var cMesh:Mesh = new Mesh(cGeometry,cMaterial);
				cMesh.x = x*cellWidth-xOff;
				cMesh.y = y*cellHeight-yOff;
				cMesh.z = z*cellDepth-zOff;
			cubeContainer.addChild(cMesh);
			objects[x][y][z] = cMesh;
			filledCells++;
		}
		private function removeObject(x:int,y:int,z:int):void {
			cubeContainer.removeChild(objects[x][y][z]);
			objects[x][y][z].material.dispose();
			objects[x][y][z].dispose();
			objects[x][y][z] = null;
			filledCells--;
		}
		private function getRGB(r:int,g:int,b:int):int {
			var rgb:int = parseInt((r*colorMultiplier).toString(16) + (g*colorMultiplier).toString(16) + (b*colorMultiplier).toString(16),16);
			return rgb;
		}
			
	}
}

Feel free to use and modify the code to your heart's content. If you come up with anything nifty, post a link to it in the comments.

Accessing Views From Flash in Drupal Gardens

on Mon, 12/19/2011 - 10:53

Wow, life can be whacky.

So I am pretty sold on Drupal Gardens as a base for most of my future development projects. However, there are still a couple of useful pieces missing, that are out-of-the-box available on a full Drupal install. Specifically, the Services module. Services allow alternate means of accessing data stored in the Drupal database. So if I want to, say, use Drupal as a content management system for a Flash game, I can just pull information in as and when I need it, by referencing a URL and passing the appropriate parameters.

Drupal Gardens doesn't allow that yet. Well, technically they do, but only in very specific ways, none of which are ideal for using Drupal as a straightforward CMS. Having said that, apparently adding this functionality is something they are looking into.

But enough carping! It is possible to use DG as a CMS for a Flash (or AJAX, or Silverlight, etc) application, provided you only need to pull content out of the database, not put it back in. It just takes a bit of a work-around to get everything up and running.

Note: The rest of this post assumes a familiarity with Actionscript, Drupal Views and RSS feeds. If not, take a few minutes to read up on them.

The Views module allows the contents of a view to be published as a Page, as a Block, or as an RSS feed. Say I am making a role-playing game, and I need to populate the world therein with wildlife. To keep things simple, each critter has the following information points:

  • name
  • description
  • terrain (where the creature might be encountered)
  • associated element ( from the classic 5, for combat purposes)

So after entering data for several animals, you would end up with a table which looks something like this:

Name Description Terrain element
squirrel cute, fluffy, voracious forest wood
camel cute, fluffy, spits a lot desert water
walrus truly, nature's most majestic animal plains earth

...at least, that's how it looks in the database. To get it into Flash (in Drupal Gardens, at present) requires a little more work. But not a lot more work.

Pulling the RSS feed of a view is quite simple. Just create a "feed" version of an existing view, and set up a URL path for it, and voila! You have a  feed of the contents of a view.

However, note that the actual contents of a view, when delivered in an RSS feed, are all packed into the <description> tag of the view, and include all of the HTML which would normally be rendered in the page. It looks something like this:

 

http://ecceludum.drupalgardens.com/feeds/monsters/terrain/desert
    enhttp://ecceludum.drupalgardens.com/content/camel
    
&lt;div class=&quot;field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden&quot;&gt;
&lt;div class=&quot;field-items&quot;&gt;
&lt;div class=&quot;field-item even&quot; property=&quot;content:encoded&quot;&gt; 
&lt;p&gt;camel text&lt;/p&gt; 
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class=&quot;field field-name-field-monster-element field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above&quot;&gt;
&lt;div class=&quot;field-label&quot;&gt;element:&nbsp;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class=&quot;field-items&quot;&gt;
&lt;div class=&quot;field-item even&quot;&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;/elements/water&quot; typeof=&quot;skos:Concept&quot; property=&quot;rdfs:label skos:prefLabel&quot;&gt;Water
&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class=&quot;field field-name-field-monster-terrain field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above&quot;&gt;
&lt;div class=&quot;field-label&quot;&gt;terrain:&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class=&quot;field-items&quot;&gt;
&lt;div class=&quot;field-item even&quot;&gt;
&lt;a href=&quot;/terrain/desert&quot; typeof=&quot;skos:Concept&quot; property=&quot;rdfs:label skos:prefLabel&quot;&gt;desert
&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
Thu, 15 Dec 2011 18:22:47 +0000John Winkelman71 at http://ecceludum.drupalgardens.comhttp://ecceludum.drupalgardens.com/content/camel#comments

All well and good, except boy, are the contents of the DESCRIPTION tag ugly. That is because the  angle brackets, ampersands, quote marks and non-breaking spaces have  been re-written as plain text character entities. In a sense, they have been rendered as a picture of source code, rather than source code. There is a simple fix for this: When Flash pulls in an RSS feed (or any other XML-based document) it pulls this content in as plain text. It is not structured as XML until after it is loaded into the Flash movie. This means that the string can be parsed internally, and all of the character entities turned into their respective text elements. E.g. each instance of "&gt;" can be replaced with a ">". The simplest way might be the following line of code:

var newString = oldString.split("&lt;").join("<").split("&gt;").join(">").split("&quot;").join("\"").split("&nbsp;").join(" ");
var myXML = new XML(newString);

If that is run on the preceding big ugly bit of RSS feed, then the contents of the DESCRIPTION tags would suddenly look like this:

<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden">
<div class="field-items">
<div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"> 
<p>camel text</p> 
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="field field-name-field-monster-element field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above">
<div class="field-label">element: 
</div>
<div class="field-items">
<div class="field-item even">
<a href="/elements/water" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">Water
</a>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="field field-name-field-monster-terrain field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above">
<div class="field-label">terrain:&nbsp;
</div>
<div class="field-items">
<div class="field-item even">
<a href="/terrain/desert" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">desert
</a>
</div>
</div>
</div>

Now the contents of the DESCRIPTION element of the RSS feed XML are structured and can be parsed using the Flash XML tools. In this instance, you would look for the contents of the elements div.field-name-field-monster-element a, div.field-name-field-monster-terrain a, and div.field-name-body p.

You will note that there are a lot of extra DIV tags, and many of them have huge long class names and/ir IDs. This is not a problem for two reasons: first, the data is well-structured, and second, it is consistent. Unless there are changes to the structure of the View in Drupal Gardens - e.g. changing the "terrain" data field to be called "territory" instead - every time the data is pulled from this RSS feed for this View, it will have exactly the same structure. Having five records or ten thousand won't change things.

So there it is: An overview of how to access Views information from a Flash movie, via RSS, in Drupal Gardens.

Away3d and Flash Player 11

on Thu, 11/03/2011 - 22:25

Butterfly Curve animated with Away3d

Click the image above to launch the experiment. Requires Flash Player 11. May beat up on older computers. A lot.

What you see here is a simple example of what the Flash 11 player is capable of. There are 500 cubes, dynamically lit, moving through a "Transcendent Butterfly" curve on the x and y axes, and a variation of an epicycloid in the Z. The whole formation is oscillating through the x, y, and z axes as well. The little box in the upper left corner shows frame rate and the amount of RAM which the animation is using. I have had as many as 1000 cubes running through this animation but the frame rate dropped down below 30 FPS. 500 cubes is plenty for the moment.

This animation was created using the Away3d code library.

Mersenne Twister in Actionscript

on Wed, 10/12/2011 - 08:23

A few years ago I attempted to create a game for the GameDev.net Four Elements Contest. I had an idea that I wanted the game to be a cross between Nethack and Elite - and maybe a little Spore - which is to say, loads and loads of procedurally generated content. I never got past a very rough prototype of the world-building engine, but I learned a lot about procedural generation, and game development in general. Specifically, that it takes a lot more time than I generally have available.

One of the artifacts of this experiment was an extremely useful Mersenne Twister class, which I ported over from a C class I found on Wikipedia. A Mersenne Twister is a seeded pseudo-random number generator. In other words, for a given input n and a range r, it will return a random number between 0 (or whichever number you designate as the lower bound) and r, using n as the seed.

How is that useful? If you want to be able to, for instance, save a game which is based on random number-seeded procedural content, you want to be able to return the same seed every time. And if someone wants to start a new game, you want that seed to be different, but also repeatable. If you can't reload a saved game and have it be based off the same random number as before, then loading a game would be no different from starting a new one.

Anyway. Here is the Actionscript 3 class:

/*
   A C-program for MT19937, with initialization improved 2002/1/26.
   Coded by Takuji Nishimura and Makoto Matsumoto.

   Before using, initialize the state by using init_genrand(seed)
   or init_by_array(init_key, key_length).

   Copyright (C) 1997 - 2002, Makoto Matsumoto and Takuji Nishimura,
   All rights reserved.

   Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
   modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
   are met:

     1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
        notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.

     2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
        notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
        documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.

     3. The names of its contributors may not be used to endorse or promote
        products derived from this software without specific prior written
        permission.

   THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS
   "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT
   LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR
   A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT OWNER OR
   CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL,
   EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO,
   PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR
   PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF
   LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING
   NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS
   SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.


   Any feedback is very welcome.
   http://www.math.sci.hiroshima-u.ac.jp/~m-mat/MT/emt.html
   email: m-mat @ math.sci.hiroshima-u.ac.jp (remove space)

     -------------------

     Converted to Actionscript 2005 by John Winkelman
     Feedback welcome at john.winkelman@gmail.com
*/


/* Period parameters */
package org.eccesignum.utilities {
    public class MersenneTwister {
        private var N:Number = 624;
        private var M:Number = 397;
        private var MATRIX_A:Number = 0x9908b0df;   /* constant vector a */
        private var UPPER_MASK:Number = 0x80000000; /* most significant w-r bits */
        private var LOWER_MASK:Number = 0x7fffffff; /* least significant r bits */

        private var mt:Array; /* the array for the state vector  */
        private var mti:Number;

        private var seed:Number;
        private var returnLength:Number;
        private var maxSize:Number;

        private var returnArray:Array;


        public function MersenneTwister():void {

        }

        public function twist($seed:Number,$returnLength:int,$maxSize:int):Array {    //    seed number, number of values to return ,max size of returned number
            seed = $seed;
            returnLength = $returnLength;
            maxSize = $maxSize;
            mt = [];

            returnArray = [];

            mti = N+1; /* mti==N+1 means mt[N] is not initialized */
            var i:int;
            //var initArray=(0x123, 0x234, 0x345, 0x456);    //2010.04.20    modiied to the below
            var initArray:Array = [0x123, 0x234, 0x345, 0x456];
            init_by_array(initArray,initArray.length);
            for (i=0; i<returnLength; i++) {
                returnArray[i] = genrand_int32()%maxSize;
            }
            //returnArray.sort(16);
            //trace(returnArray);
            /*
            trace("\n1000 outputs of genrand_real2()\n");
            for (i=0; i<returnLength; i++) {
              trace(" " + genrand_real2());
              if (i%5==4) trace("\n");
            }
            */
            return returnArray;

        }


        /* initializes mt[N] with a seed */
        private function init_genrand($seed:Number):void {
            mt[0]= $seed & 0xffffffff;
            for (mti=1; mti<N; mti++) {
                mt[mti] = (1812433253 * (mt[mti-1] ^ (mt[mti-1] >> 30)) + mti);
                mt[mti] &= 0xffffffff;
                /* for >32 bit machines */
            }
        }

        /* initialize by an array with array-length */
        /* init_key is the array for initializing keys */
        /* key_length is its length */
        /* slight change for C++, 2004/2/26 */
        //    void init_by_array(unsigned long init_key[], int key_length)

        private function init_by_array($seedArray:Array,$seedArrayLength:Number):void {
            var i:Number = 1;
            var j:Number = 0;
            init_genrand(seed);
            //init_genrand(19650218);
            var k:Number = (N>$seedArrayLength) ? N : $seedArrayLength;
            for (k; k>0; k--) {
                mt[i] = (mt[i] ^ ((mt[i-1] ^ (mt[i-1] >> 30)) * 1664525)) + $seedArray[j] + j; /* non linear */
                mt[i] &= 0xffffffff; /* for WORDSIZE > 32 machines */
                i++;
                j++;
                if (i >= N) {
                    mt[0] = mt[N-1];
                    i=1;
                }
                if (j >= $seedArrayLength) j=0;
            }
            for (k = N-1; k; k--) {
                mt[i] = (mt[i] ^ ((mt[i-1] ^ (mt[i-1] >> 30)) * 1566083941)) - i; /* non linear */
                mt[i] &= 0xffffffff; /* for WORDSIZE > 32 machines */
                i++;
                if (i>=N) {
                    mt[0] = mt[N-1];
                    i=1;
                }
            }

            mt[0] = 0x80000000; /* MSB is 1; assuring non-zero initial array */
        }

        /* generates a random number on [0,0xffffffff]-interval */
        private function genrand_int32():Number    {
            var y:Number;
            var mag01:Array=[0x0, MATRIX_A];
            /* mag01[x] = x * MATRIX_A  for x=0,1 */

            if (mti >= N) { /* generate N words at one time */
                var kk:Number;

                if (mti == N+1)   /* if init_genrand() has not been called, */
                    init_genrand(5489); /* a default initial seed is used */

                for (kk=0;kk<N-M;kk++) {
                    y = (mt[kk]&UPPER_MASK)|(mt[kk+1]&LOWER_MASK);
                    mt[kk] = mt[kk+M] ^ (y >> 1) ^ mag01[y & 0x1];
                }
                for (;kk<N-1;kk++) {
                    y = (mt[kk]&UPPER_MASK)|(mt[kk+1]&LOWER_MASK);
                    mt[kk] = mt[kk+(M-N)] ^ (y >> 1) ^ mag01[y & 0x1];
                }
                y = (mt[N-1]&UPPER_MASK)|(mt[0]&LOWER_MASK);
                mt[N-1] = mt[M-1] ^ (y >> 1) ^ mag01[y & 0x1];

                mti = 0;
            }

            y = mt[mti++];

            /* Tempering */
            y ^= (y >> 11);
            y ^= (y << 7) & 0x9d2c5680;
            y ^= (y << 15) & 0xefc60000;
            y ^= (y >> 18);

            return y;
        }

        /* generates a random number on [0,0x7fffffff]-interval */
        private function genrand_int31():Number    {
            return (genrand_int32()>>1);
        }

        /* generates a random number on [0,1]-real-interval */
        private function genrand_real1():Number    {
            return genrand_int32()*(1.0/4294967295.0);
            /* divided by 2^32-1 */
        }

        /* generates a random number on [0,1)-real-interval */
        private function genrand_real2():Number {
            return genrand_int32()*(1.0/4294967296.0);
            /* divided by 2^32 */
        }

        /* generates a random number on (0,1)-real-interval */
        private function genrand_real3():Number    {
            return ((genrand_int32()) + 0.5)*(1.0/4294967296.0);
            /* divided by 2^32 */
        }

        /* generates a random number on [0,1) with 53-bit resolution*/
        private function genrand_res53():Number    {
            var a:Number = genrand_int32()>>5;
            var b:Number = genrand_int32()>>6;
            return(a*67108864.0+b)*(1.0/9007199254740992.0);
        }
        /* These real versions are due to Isaku Wada, 2002/01/09 added */
    }
}

And it is called like this:

var twister:MersenneTwister = new MersenneTwister();
twister.twist(17436,100,50000); // seed number, number of values to return, maximum size of a given value

Since I wrote this, many other people have made versions in Actionscript. There is a comprehensive list on the Mersenne Twister page at Wikipedia.

Pages