Xylem + Hyphae algorithms

Simulating growth
Our simulation begins with isolated root veins in an environment of digital hormone sources. Veins gradually emerge from the roots and colonize space as hormone flows towards nearby veins. They branch as these flows meet from different directions and subsequently merge as the growth surrounds individual hormone sources. The growth continues until every source has been overtaken. The result is a space-filling network that is both hierarchical and rhizomatic.

Technical Details
Our system was inspired by the paper "Modeling and visualization of leaf venation patterns" by Adam Runions & co. We have developed two primary simulation systems: Xylem (2D) and Hyphae (3D) which extend their original algorithm. We have written extensively about the technical challenges behind creating these works in our blog: xylem experiments and improvements

Hyphae - custom software built with c++ using CGAL.
Xylem - custom software built with Processing.