Reaction Diffusion Grid

The Reaction Diffusion Grid fills the floor with a living pattern: coral branches, winding labyrinths and spots that split in two, growing, merging and healing under the grid lines without ever settling. It is the same process that is thought to paint leopard spots, zebra stripes and the ridges of brain coral.

How it works

Two virtual chemicals spread across the surface. One feeds the other, the other consumes it and multiplies, and because they spread at different speeds an even mixture cannot stay even: it breaks into fronts that grow, divide and repair themselves. The simulation runs continuously and wraps at its edges, so it repeats across the floor without a seam. The edges of each front are drawn as glowing contours, with a second contour deeper inside so the fronts read as ridges, and Displace lifts the pattern into real relief.

Settings

• Feed and Kill pick the kind of pattern: around the default values you get coral and labyrinths, slightly lower values give dividing spots.
• Variation spreads Feed and Kill across the tile, so several patterns grow side by side.
• Tile Cells sets how many grid cells one simulation tile covers before it repeats.
• Line Color, Section Color and Glow Color set the teal fronts and warm accents.

Use it for

Biotech and health brands, organic and natural products, alien and underwater worlds and generative art backgrounds. For more natural growth, see the Phyllotaxis Grid.