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Generate irregular blob Shape in java

I'm trying to generate a random irregular java.awt.Shape blob, something like the examples in the second answer (the one by Paul Gaborit) to this question on tex.stackexchange.com.
If there is a way to start with an Ellipse2D and then modify that similar to how it is done in TeX in that answer, great.
Otherwise, maybe I could do something like this?:
public Shape createShape(int pointCount, double max_deviation, int median_radius,
int[] center)
{
int[][] pathPoints = new int[pointCount][2];
Random rand = new Random();
for (int i=0;i<pointCount;i++)
{
double angle = (2*Math.PI/((double)pointCount))*((double)i);
double temp_deviation = (0.5-rand.nextDouble())*2.0*max_deviation;
double temp_radius = median_radius+temp_deviation;
int x = (int) Math.round(temp_radius*Math.cos(angle));
int y = (int) Math.round(temp_radius*Math.sin(angle));
pathPoints[i] = new int[] {x+center[0],y+center[1]};
}
// somehow make pathPoints into a Shape with smooth curves
return shape;
}
Still, that would only produce a crude initial blob. It would be nice if I could then introduce fined grained random ripples in that random shape.

Area Under Curve - 1D Array (Java)

I have a quick question, that in most languages (such as python) would be straightforward.
I am looking to obtain the integral (area of curve) from an 1D-array of fixed points. Java apparently has many numerical integration libraries, all of which seem to require a function (f {double(x)}) as input.
However I can not seem to find any which accommodate arrays (double []) such as [1,4,10,11]. I would be integrating over the entirety of the array (x values 1-n, where n represents the size of the array)
Any help is greatly appreciated

Well, they expect functions because its normal to use them with a continuity.
Since you have only a different height every step (1,2,3,4...?) you have rectangles with triangles on top of them. the height of the triangles is the difference between the current height and the previous height. therefore the rectangle s height is the current pint height minus triangle height.
Write a function which calculates and adds both areas.
Do this for every point/item in your Array and you will get the integral of your "function".
EDIT: I wrote a little code. no guarantee, I just coded some easy to understand code of the idea of this integral prob. Further improvements have to be done.
public static double getIntegralFromArray(double[] ar, double xDist)
{
double base = 0;
double prev = 0;
double triHeight = 0;
double rectHeight = 0;
double tri = 0;
double rect = 0;
double integral = 0;
for (int i = 0; i < ar.length; i++) {
triHeight=Math.abs(ar[i]-prev); // get Height Triangle
tri = xDist*triHeight/2; // get Area Triangle
if(ar[i]<=prev){
rectHeight = Math.abs(base-ar[i]); // get Height Rectangle
}else {
rectHeight = Math.abs(base-(ar[i]-triHeight)); // get Height Rectangle
}
rect = xDist*rectHeight; // get Area Rectangle
integral += (rect + tri); // add Whole Area to Integral
prev=ar[i];
}
return integral;
}
double[] ar = new double[]{1,2,3,2,2,3,1,3,0,3,3};
System.out.println(MyMath.getIntegralFromArray(ar, 1));
Area under 'curve': 21.5

By using trapezoidal rule you can simply call below method to get area under a graph(approx.)
public static double trapz(double ar[],double xDist){
if (ar.length==1 || ar.length==0)
return 0;
double integral=0;
double prev=ar[0];
for (int i=1;i<ar.length;i++)
{
integral+=xDist*(prev+ar[i])/2.0;
prev=ar[i];
}
return integral;
}

plotting points along a straight line from a random start position

I am looking for some help with some game code i have inherited from a flight sim. The code below simulates bombs exploding on the ground, it works fine but i am trying to refine it.
At the moment it takes a random value for x and y as a start point and then adds another random value between -20 and 20 to this. It works ok, but doesn't simulate bombs dropping very well as the pattern does not lay along a straight line/
What i would like to achieve though is all x and y points after the first random values, to lay along a straight line, so that the effects called for all appear to lay in a line. It doesn't matter which way the line is orientated.
Thanks for any help
slipper
public static class BombUnit extends CandCGeneric
{
public boolean danger()
{
Point3d point3d = new Point3d();
pos.getAbs(point3d);
Vector3d vector3d = new Vector3d();
Random random = new Random();
Aircraft aircraft = War.GetNearestEnemyAircraft(this, 10000F, 9);
if(counter > 10)
{
counter = 0;
startpoint.set(point3d.x + (double)(random.nextInt(1000) - 500), point3d.y + (double)(random.nextInt(1000) - 500), point3d.z);
}
if(aircraft != null && (aircraft instanceof TypeBomber) && aircraft.getArmy() != myArmy)
{
World.MaxVisualDistance = 50000F;
counter++;
String s = "weapon.bomb_std";
startpoint.x += random.nextInt(40) - 20;
startpoint.y += random.nextInt(40) - 20;
Explosions.generate(this, startpoint, 7F, 0, 30F, !Mission.isNet());
startpoint.z = World.land().HQ(startpoint.x, startpoint.y);
MsgExplosion.send(this, s, startpoint, getOwner(), 0.0F, 7F, 0, 30F);
Engine.land();
int i = Landscape.getPixelMapT(Engine.land().WORLD2PIXX(startpoint.x), Engine.land().WORLD2PIXY(startpoint.y));
if(firecounter < 100 && i >= 16 && i < 20)
{
Eff3DActor.New(null, null, new Loc(startpoint.x, startpoint.y, startpoint.z + 5D, 0.0F, 90F, 0.0F), 1.0F, "Effects/Smokes/CityFire3.eff", 300F);
firecounter++;
}
super.setTimer(15);
}
return true;
}
private static Point3d startpoint = new Point3d();
private int counter;
private int firecounter;
public BombUnit()
{
counter = 11;
firecounter = 0;
Timer1 = Timer2 = 0.05F;
}
}

The code in the question is a mess, but ignoring this and trying to focus on the relevant parts: You can generate a random position for the first point, and a random direction, and then walk along this direction in several steps.
(This still raises the question of whether the direction is really not important. Wouldn't it matter if only the first bomb was dropped in the "valid" area, and the remaining ones outside of the screen?)
However, the relevant code could roughly look like this:
class Bombs
{
private final Random random = new Random(0);
int getScreenSizeX() { ... }
int getScreenSizeY() { ... }
// Method to drop a single bomb at the given position
void dropBombAt(double x, double y) { ... }
void dropBombs(int numberOfBombs, double distanceBetweenBombs)
{
// Create a random position in the screen
double currentX = random.nextDouble() * getScreenSizeX();
double currentY = random.nextDouble() * getScreenSizeY();
// Create a random step size
double directionX = random.nextDouble();
double directionY = random.nextDouble();
double invLength = 1.0 / Math.hypot(directionX, directionY);
double stepX = directionX * invLength * distanceBetweenBombs;
double stepY = directionY * invLength * distanceBetweenBombs;
// Drop the bombs
for (int i=0; i<numberOfBombs; i++)
{
dropBombAt(currentX, currentY);
currentX += stepX;
currentY += stepY;
}
}
}

I am assuming your startpoint is a StartPoint class with x,y,z coordinates as integers in it.
I hope I have understood your problem correctly. It looks like you either want to create a vertical explosion or a horizontal explosion. Since an explosion always occurs on ground, the z coordinate will be zero. Now you can vary one of x or y coordinate to give you a random explosion along a straight line. Whether you choose x or y could be fixed or could be randomized itself. A potential randomized solution below:
public boolean danger() {
// stuff
int orientation = Random.nextInt(2);
if(aircraft != null && (aircraft instanceof TypeBomber) && aircraft.getArmy() != myArmy)
{
// stuff
startPoint = randomizeStartPoint(orientation, startPoint);
// stuff
}
}
StartPoint randomizeStartPoint(int orientation, StartPoint startPoint) {
if(orientation == 0) {
startPoint.x += random.nextInt(40) - 20;
}
else {
startPoint.y += random.nextInt(40) - 20;
}
return startPoint;
}
In response to the image you uploaded, it seems that the orientation of the explosion need not necessarily be horizontal or vertical. So the code I posted above gives a limited solution to your problem.
Since you want any random straight line, your problem boils down to two sub parts:
1. Generate a random straight line equation.
2. Generate random point along this line.
Now, a straight line equation in coordinate geometry is y = mx + c where m is the slope and c is the constant where the line crosses the y-axis. The problem with c is that it gives rise to irrational coordinates. I am assuming you are looking for integer coordinates only, since this will ensure that your points are accurately plotted. (You could do with rational fractions, but then a fraction like 1/3 will still result in loss of accuracy). The best way to get rid of this irrational problem is to get rid of c. So now your straight line always looks like y = mx. So for step one, you have to generate a random m.
Then for step 2, you can either generate a random x or random y. It doesn't matter which one, since either one will result in random coordinates.
Here is a possible code for the solution:
int generateRandomSlope() {
return Random.nextInt(100); // arbitrarily chose 100.
}
int randomizeStartPoint(int m, StartPoint startPoint) { // takes the slope we generated earlier. without the slope, your points will never be on a straight line!
startPoint.x += random.nextInt(40) - 20;
startPoint.y += x * m; // because a line equation is y = mx
return startPoint;
}
public boolean danger() {
// stuff
int m = generateRandomSlope(); // you may want to generate this elsewhere so that it doesn't change each time danger() is called.
if(aircraft != null && (aircraft instanceof TypeBomber) && aircraft.getArmy() != myArmy)
{
// stuff
startPoint = randomizeStartPoint(m, startPoint);
// stuff
}
}
Again, this is not a complete or the best solution.

Creating a Squircle

I'm a first year programmer. I'm trying to create a squircle. (square with round corners).
So far i have managed to get. I have been given the constants of a,b and r. If anyone could help i would be really thankful. I'm a total noob to this. So be nice :)
package squircle;
import java.awt.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import java.lang.Math;
public class Main extends javax.swing.JApplet {
public void paint(Graphics g){
// (x-a)^4 + (y-b)^4 = r^4
// y = quadroot( r^4 - (x-a)^4 + b)
// x values must fall within a-r < x < a+r
int[] xPoints = new int[200];
int[] yPoints = new int[200];
int[] mypoints = new int[200];
for(int c = 0; c <200; c++){
int a = 100;
int r = 100;
int b = 100;
double x = c ;
double temp = (r*r*r*r);
double temp2 = x-a;
double temp3 = ((temp2)*(temp2)*(temp2)*(temp2));
double temp6 = Math.sqrt(temp-temp3);
double y = (Math.sqrt(temp6) + b );
double z = (y*-1)+300;
mypoints[c]=(int)z;
// if (c>100){
// y = y*1;
// }
// else if(c<100){
// y = y*1;
// }
xPoints[c]=(int)x;
yPoints[c]=(int)y;
// change the equation to find x co-ordinates
// change it to find y co-ordinates.
// r is the minor radius
// (a,b) is the location of the centre
// a = 100
// b = 100
// r = 100
// x value must fall within 0 or 200
}
g.drawPolygon(xPoints, yPoints, xPoints.length);
g.drawPolygon(xPoints, (mypoints), xPoints.length);
}
}

Is it homework or is there some other reason why you're not using Graphics#drawRoundRect()?

If you are submitting this as homework there are some elements of style that may help you. What are the roles of 200, 100 and 300? These are "magic constants" which should be avoided. Are they related or is it just chance that they have these values? Suggest you use symbols such as:
int NPOINTS = 200;
or
double radius = 100.0
That would reveal whether the 300 was actually the value you want. I haven't checked.
Personally I wouldn't write
y*-1
but
-y
as it's too easy to mistype the former.
I would also print out the 200 points as floats and see if you can tell by eye where the error is. It's highly likely that the spurious lines are either drawn at the start or end of the calculation - it's easy to make "end-effect" errors where exactly one point is omitted or calculated twice.
Also it's cheap to experiment. Try iterating c from 0 to 100. or 0 to 10, or 0 to 198 or 1 to 200. Does your spurious line/triangle always occur?
UPDATE Here is what I think is wrong and how to tackle it. You have made a very natural graphics error and a fence-post error (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Off-by-one_error) and it's hard to detect what is wrong because your variable names are poorly chosen.
What is mypoints? I believe it is the bottom half of the squircle - if you had called it bottomHalf then those replying woulod have spotted the problem quicker :-).
Your graphics problem is that you are drawing TWO HALF-squircles. Your are drawing CLOSED curves - when you get to the last point (c==199) the polygon is closed by drawing back to c==0. That makes a D-shape. You have TWO D-shapes, one with the bulge UP and one DOWN. Each has a horizontal line closing the polygon.
Your fence-post error is that you are drawing points from 0 to 199. For the half-squircle you want to draw from 0 to 200. That's 201 points! The loss of one point means that you have a very slightly sloping line. The bottom lines slopes in tghe opposite direction from the top. That gives you a very then wedge shape, which you refer to as a triangle. I'm guessing that your triangle is not actually closed but like a slice from a pie but very then/sharp.
(The code below could be prettier and more compact. However it is often useful to break symmetrical problems into quadrants or octants. It would also be interesting to use an anngle to sweep out the polygon).
You actually want ONE polygon. The code should be something like:
int NQUADRANT = 100;
int NPOINTS = 4*NQUADRANT ; // closed polygon
double[] xpoints = new double[NPOINTS];
double[] ypoints = new double[NPOINTS];
Your squircle is at 100, 100 with radius 100. I have chosen different values here
to emphasize they aren't related. By using symbolic names you can easily vary them.
double xcenter = 500.0;
double ycentre = 200.0;
double radius = 100.;
double deltax = radius/(double) NQUADRANT;
// let's assume squircle is centered on 0,0 and add offsets later
// this code is NOT complete or correct but should show the way
// I might have time later
for (int i = 0; i < NPOINTS; i++) {
if (i < NQUADRANT) {
double x0 = -radius + i* deltax;
double y0 = fourthRoot(radius, x0);
x[i] = x0+xcenter;
y[i] = y0+ycenter;
}else if (i < 2*NQUADRANT) {
double x0 = (i-NQUADRANT)* deltax;
double y0 = fourthRoot(radius, x0);
x[i] = x0+xcenter;
y[i] = y0+ycenter;
}else if (i < 3*NQUADRANT) {
double x0 = (i-2*NQUADRANT)* deltax;
double y0 = -fourthRoot(radius, x0);
x[i] = x0+xcenter;
y[i] = y0+ycenter;
}else {
double x0 = -radius + (i-3*NQUADRANT)* deltax;
double y0 = -fourthRoot(radius, x0);
x[i] = x0+xcenter;
y[i] = y0+ycenter;
}
}
// draw single polygon
private double fourthRoot(double radius, double x) {
return Math.sqrt(Math.sqrt(radius*radius*radius*radius - x*x*x*x));
}

There is a javascript version here. You can view the source and "compare notes" to potentially see what you are doing wrong.

Ok, upon further investigation here is why you are getting the "triangle intersecting it". When you drawPolygon the points are drawn and the last point connects the first point, closing the points and making the polygon. Since you draw one half it is drawn (then connected to itself) and then the same happens for the other side.
As a test of this change your last couple lines to this:
for( int i = 0; i < yPoints.length; i++ ) {
g.drawString( "*", xPoints[ i ], yPoints[ i ] );
}
for( int i = 0; i < mypoints.length; i++ ) {
g.drawString( "*", xPoints[ i ], mypoints[ i ] );
}
// g.drawPolygon( xPoints, yPoints, xPoints.length );
// g.drawPolygon( xPoints, ( mypoints ), xPoints.length );
It is a little crude, but I think you'll get the point. There are lots of solutions out there, personally I would try using an array of the Point class and then sort it when done, but I don't know the specifics of what you can and can not do.

Wow, are you guys overthinking this, or what! Why not just use drawLine() four times to draw the straight parts of the rectangle and then use drawArc() to draw the rounded corners?

Polygon Intersection fails, collision "size" too big

OK, so I'm trying to make a simple asteroids clone. Everything works fine, except for the collision detection.
I have two different versions, the first one uses java.awt.geom.Area:
// polygon is a java.awt.Polygon and p is the other one
final Area intersect = new Area();
intersect.add(new Area(polygon));
intersect.intersect(new Area(p.polygon));
return !intersect.isEmpty();
This works like a charm... if you don't care about 40% CPU for only 120 asteroids :(
So I searched the net for the famous separating axis theorem, since I'm not thaaaaaat good a the math I took the implementation from here and converted it to fit my Java needs:
public double dotProduct(double x, double y, double dx, double dy) {
return x * dx + y * dy;
}
public double IntervalDistance(double minA, double maxA, double minB,
double maxB) {
if (minA < minB) {
return minB - maxA;
} else {
return minA - maxB;
}
}
public double[] ProjectPolygon(double ax, double ay, int p, int[] x, int[] y) {
double dotProduct = dotProduct(ax, ay, x[0], y[0]);
double min = dotProduct;
double max = dotProduct;
for (int i = 0; i < p; i++) {
dotProduct = dotProduct(x[i], y[i], ax, ay);
if (dotProduct < min) {
min = dotProduct;
} else if (dotProduct > max) {
max = dotProduct;
}
}
return new double[] { min, max };
}
public boolean PolygonCollision(Asteroid ast) {
int edgeCountA = points;
int edgeCountB = ast.points;
double edgeX;
double edgeY;
for (int edgeIndex = 0; edgeIndex < edgeCountA + edgeCountB; edgeIndex++) {
if (edgeIndex < edgeCountA) {
edgeX = xp[edgeIndex] * 0.9;
edgeY = yp[edgeIndex] * 0.9;
} else {
edgeX = ast.xp[edgeIndex - edgeCountA] * 0.9;
edgeY = ast.yp[edgeIndex - edgeCountA] * 0.9;
}
final double x = -edgeY;
final double y = edgeX;
final double len = Math.sqrt(x * x + y * y);
final double axisX = x / len;
final double axisY = y / len;
final double[] minMaxA = ProjectPolygon(axisX, axisY, points, xp,
yp);
final double[] minMaxB = ProjectPolygon(axisX, axisY, ast.points,
ast.xp, ast.yp);
if (IntervalDistance(minMaxA[0], minMaxA[1], minMaxB[0], minMaxB[1]) > 0) {
return false;
}
}
return true;
}
It works... kinda. Actually it seems that the "collision hull" of the asteroids is too big when using this code, it's like 1.2 times the size of the asteroid. And I don't have any clue why.
Here are two pictures for comparison:
http://www.spielecast.de/stuff/asteroids1.png
http://www.spielecast.de/stuff/asteroids2.png
As you can hopefully see, the asteroids in picture one are much denser than the ones in picture 2 where is use the SAT code.
So any ideas? Or does anyone knows a Polygon implementation for Java featuring intersection tests that I could use?

It looks like your second result is doing collision detection as if the polygons were circles with their radius set to the most distant point of the polygon from the center. Most collision detection stuff I've seen creates a simple bounding box (either a circle or rectangle) into which the polygon can fit. Only if two bounding boxes intersect (a far simpler calculation) do you continue on to the more detailed detection. Perhaps the appropriated algorithm is only intended as a bounding box calculator?
EDIT:
Also, from wikipedia
The theorem does not apply if one of the bodies is not convex.
Many of the asteroids in your image have concave surfaces.