2D vector field particle simulator

The idea is pretty simple: the visible screen is a vector field that exerts force on the particles you spawn. The particles have mass, so they don't follow the vector field exactly. The vector field you define is used for the space on-screen; if you choose to have "bounds", then everything off-screen has a vector field directed towards the center of the screen.

Example simulation

Vector field $F(x, y) = \frac{(-x, -y)}{\sqrt{x^2 + y^2}}$ acting on 1500 particles, then 4500 after two more particle spawns
(Apologies for the low framerate, it came from GIF compression)

Usage

This project is kind of a stepping stone for another project I'm making, so I wouldn't call it user-friendly. If you do want to try it out, clone the repo and follow the installation instructions for SDL2.

Once you have SDL2 installed, execute cargo run to open the simulation window. Left click to add a single particle, right click to add a couple more particles at once (3000 more, to be exact), C to clear the canvas, and ESC to close the window.

Main configuration options for the simulator (vector field, bounding, etc.) can be found in src/main.rs. src/render/simulation.rs contains additional hard-coded options, such as particle mass and color.