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Screenshot Saturday: Let's Make A Loop (Patreon)

Published:
2017-02-18 16:46:23
Imported:
2026-06
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Content

Last month, I started making a tool to simulate feedback loops.  Then, I showed off how you could program them by drawing them!  Finally, below/above is a GIF showing off how the whole editor works:

The Loopy editor – making a lynx/hare feedback loop [GIF]

I also made a big change to the design!  Instead of the nodes instantly & continuously changing each other – which was confusing – the simulation slowly shows, step-by-step, how things interact, as you can see with the ⬆️ & ⬇️ "signals" traveling along the arrows.

(I made this change after showing off an earlier demo to my friends at HARC, the research lab where Bret Victor & Vi Hart work at!  Vi Hart, if you'll recall, was who I worked with to make Parable of the Polygons.  She also makes amazing math YouTube videos)

Anyway, I just need to add a few polish-ups, and record a rough "tutorial" video, and then...

NEXT WEEK, I'll send to you the Patreon-exclusive demo!

Let me know what you think!  Does the "step by step" feedback loop simulation make sense?  Does the Loopy editor interface look too complicated?  Early feedback, even on these GIFs, is super helpful.

<3,

~ Nicky Case

Files

Previews only

Comments

UltimApe

I don't know what the arrows mean, or why they seem to flip, or why the top one doesn't change color. Part of the appeal of the faster mode was getting a visual feeling of how they interrelate, the movement of the spheres was something I could latch onto. With this new view I have trouble seeing the change in shape as being immediately related because it has to go thru the intermediate step of moving the arrows. Maybe there's room for a speed slider with the slower mode doing this piece wise view? Playing with that could help with sharing the relationship.

Boondoggle

I think the 'packetized' change does makes things clearer, but I fear that showing only a single transition at once won't work for a large system. Perhaps each arrow/packet could be a smaller change, but there would be more flowing throughout at a periodic rate. You could then control the rate to control the speed of the simulation as a whole. I also think the 'corona' showing the change isn't especially clear. It makes it look like the change to the size isn't 'real'. Also, how would that work when a node gets smaller than where it started initially? Since this already is animated, I think just changing size over time would be more clear, especially if those changes are more incremental, such as from a stream of arrows/packets.

ncase
>>3979584

Thanks Benjamin! Many peeps have independently suggested a "speed" slider for the simulation, maybe I really should do that. And yeah I wasn't sure about that "corona" visualization. What I was trying to go for was this: when it *increases*, it gets a corona, when it *decreases*, the solid circle shrinks. Not a clear visualization, though. Thanks again for your feedback!

ncase
>>3978838

Thanks Nicolas! The top arrow does change color, it's just that the tween from purple to red is maybe too subtle. And the arrow at the bottom "flips" because it's an INVERSE relationship: lynxes prey on hares – which is why more lynxes means fewer hares, and fewer lynxes means more hares. Maybe yeah, a "speed slider" (or at least two different views) might be helpful, to help people make the leap from "here it is happening one step at a time" to "here's how the entire system dances". Thanks for the feedback (loop)!