tessellatron

Tessellatron

Tessellatron creates graphs (represented by json structures) with tesselating spacial patterns.

If you ever need a graph of uniform tesselating objects right away in JavaScript, then this project is for you.

At the moment, the only tessellations you can make are with hypercubes.

Why hypercubes? A hypercube is an N-Dimensional square-shaped object. Yes, a square is a hypercube, but so is a cube, a tesseract, and a line. Even a single point is a tesseract, but the graph for this will not be very interesting (as it will always contain one node, or none).

Hypercubes of a particular dimension tesselate with other hypercubes of the same shape and dimension. Therefore, it is relatively easy to generate tesselating structures abiding by these rules.

To Do

In the future, plans for triangular graphs, hexagonal graphs, and more are in the "tea leaves". We'll see if there is enough support for this project to add those features!

Commands

npm run build

Graph Documentation

Parameters

Graph.layout

This property is defined by the class itself. For example, HypercubeGraph uses functions to make a graph shaped like a hypercube. Therefore, the layout is "hypercube". The same can be said about hexagonal layouts.

Graph.dimensions

This property shows how long each dimension is.s For example, a 2D-square map might be 17 cells wide and 17 cells long, represented by the array [17,17].

Graph.degree

Graph.degree notes the number of dimensions. It is equal to the length of the Graph.dimension array.

Graph.magnitudes

For each dimension, there is a magnitude associated with it. This represents how far apart each Cell is for a row, column, stack etc. For example, moving east or west one unit requires offsetting a Cell ID by ±1. Moving north or south one unit might require offsetting a Cell ID by ±17.

Graph.size

Graph.size equals the product of all the dimensions. It is also equal to the length of the Graph.data array.

Graph.data

This property holds all the cells in a particular order. Using the index of the cell, the Graph class can calculate its neighbors, its coordinates, and whether or not has a boundary nearby.

Graph.compass

The Compass Rose takes magnitudes and assigns them to various directions, and their reverse magnitude to respective antipodes.

Graph.directions

This property describes all valid directions in a Set. A direction is a specially named vector. For example, North and South are both directions, and are also antipodes of one another.

Graph.antipodes

Usually, a direction can be associated with an antipode. An antipode is also a direction. Literally speaking, an antipode is the "Polar Opposite" of something, especially when dealing with directions or coordinates.

Methods

Graph.holdsIndex()

Confirms that a Cell ID fits within the boundaries of the graph.

Graph.holdsNeighbors()

Confirms that two Cell IDs represent adjoined Cells.

Graph.connectPassage()

Adds a passageway between two cells. It takes in a direction and two Cell IDs. The first cell, cell01, gains a passage in the given direction. Likewise, cell02 gains a passage in the antipode of the given direction.

Graph.connectNeighbor()

Adjoins two cells as neighbors. It takes in a direction and two Cell IDs. The given id02 index becomes a neighbor of cell01 in the given direction. Likewise, id01 becomes a neighbor of cell02 in the antipode of the given direction.

Graph.findNeighborsOf()

Calculates and returns all the valid neighbors of a given Cell ID.

Graph.findCoordinates()

Calculates and returns the coordinates of the given Cell IDs.

Graph.findTensorSlice()

Calculates valid Cell IDs based on the given coordinates.

Graph.json

Cell.json returns a summary of the data held in the Graph, and its encapsulated Cells. This is a getter function, so you can access it like a parameter.

Cell Documentation

Parameters

Cell.id

Each cell has a unique ID. The ID matches the Cell's index or location in a map-data array, which holds all the cells.

Cell.status

This property is for use with algorithms. When initialized, Cell.status starts as "unvisited". As the algorithm processes each cell, the status switches between "active" and "passive". There can only be one or zero "active" cells at a time. When the status switches to "complete", the Cell's properties should not change again.

In summary, Cell.status can be one of four values:

• unvisited
• active
• passive
• complete

Cell.neighbors

Cell.neighbors is a dictionary of nearby Cell IDs. The keys in this dictionary are directions, as in north, south, east, and west. Thus, a neighboring Cell ID is associated with a direction in which it can be accessed.

If the neighboring Cell in question is out-of-bounds, then a nulls value is used instead of a Cell ID.

Cell.passages

Cell.passages is a dictionary of truthy values that represent passages. The keys in this dictionary are directions, as in north, south, east, and west. Thus, a passage is associated with a direction.

A true value indicates an accessible neighbor. Using the direction-passage pair, we know whether a neighbor is accessible or not.

Methods

Cell.hasPath

Determines if there are any true values in passages. This is a getter function, so you can access it like a parameter.

Cell.hasWall

Determines if there are any false values in passages. This is a getter function, so you can access it like a parameter.

Cell.json

Cell.json returns a summary of the data held in the Cell. This is a getter function, so you can access it like a parameter.