Painterly Behaviours: Real-time interactive mesh based multi-agent system
Marc Gibson · Proceedings of the International Conference on Computer-Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia · 2025
Painterly Behaviours proposes a generative workflow that allows designers to sculpt and control mesh based multi-agent processes. This approach enables designers to engage with the mesh topologies in an intuitive and gestural manner whilst providing opportunities to interact with algorithmic procedures in real-time. Embedding real-time controls is typically at odds with the computational requirements of large n-body simulations. This paper introduces a novel asynchronous process to circumvent the prohibitively slow computation times by using a set of heuristics to concurrently interpret recorded user input and process multi-agent behaviours. The multi-agent behavioural and analysis methods are highly parallelised with inbuilt flexibility to run on a combination of GPU and CPU configurations to maintain high framerates. The system's design emphasises direct interaction through a painting mechanism, enabling users to define active areas on the mesh that guide deformation and behaviour. This methodology intends to extend the capabilities of existing mesh manipulation tools by incorporating a multi-agent system associated with the vertices of the geometry.