Okay, so today I wanted to mess around with something called “Gibbs Game”. I’d heard about it, seen some chatter online, but never actually tried it myself. Basically, it’s supposed to be this way to simulate, like, little particles or something. Sounded neat, so I figured, why not?
First thing I did was just try to understand what the heck it even was. I found some stuff, but a lot of it was, like, way over my head. Math stuff, you know? So I kept digging until I found some simpler explanations and examples.
Getting Started
I decided to start super simple. I grabbed a basic Python setup, ’cause that’s what I’m most comfortable with. No fancy libraries or anything at first, just plain old Python.
- Set up the basics: I made a little window, just a black square, to start.
- Make some particles: I just made a few dots, gave ’em random positions and colors. Nothing crazy.
- Get ’em moving: I gave each dot a random direction and speed. Again, super basic.
The “Gibbs” Part (Sort Of)
Now, this is where I kinda cheated. I didn’t do the real Gibbs thing, with all the fancy calculations. I just wanted to get a feel for it. So I made up some simple rules:
- If dots get too close, they push each other away a little.
- If they’re a medium distance away, they attract each other a little.
- If they’re far away, they don’t do anything to each other.
I know, I know, it’s not really Gibbs. But it kinda looked like it! The dots would jiggle around, sometimes clump together, sometimes spread out. It was pretty cool to watch.
Making it Better
After playing with my super-simplified version, I started to add a few more things:
- More particles: I bumped up the number of dots. The more I added, the more interesting the patterns got.
- Tweak the rules: I messed around with the attraction and repulsion forces. Small changes made a big difference in how the dots behaved.
- Add some color: I made the colors change based on how close the dots were. Just to make it look a little fancier.
I didn’t have some big breakthrough or master the actual mathematics. It was more about seeing how simple rules, with no complex math, can create interesting patterns.
It’s still a work in progress, I only play the basic rules, not the real Gibbs. I’m still learning. But it was a fun little experiment, and it definitely got me curious to learn more about the real Gibbs sampling and how it all works.
