>>Cool demo, but to me they now look less like boids and more like skeeters
>>or gnats. What happened to the elegant parallel aerobatics that the old
>>version had, and that I regularly see in real flocks?
>>
>>  e-e
>>  =J= a  y
>
>=J= a y:
>
>Take a look at my program VBoid, namely:
>
>http://sperling.com/vboid.sit
>
>You may have to let the demo run a few times to fully appreciate
>what's happening.
>
>You see, I took the rules of boids and made a few changes. Surprising
>to me, was that the changes I made produced a flock that assumed a V
>when flying.
>
>It just goes to demonstrate that when birds are flying somewhere
>specific, all they have to do is to figure out where the center of
>the flock is, fly towards it, while keeping a certain distance from
>the others AND they will naturally form a V.
>
>I find it interesting this phenomena (i.e., current theory) is often
>cited by those professional in bird-dom as: "The V is the most
>efficient formation to fly, but the leading position is the hardest
>to maintain so they take turns. As such, using the V formation, the
>group can fly efficiently anywhere."
>
>But, the truth of the matter is that if you take a bunch of birds
>with a need to be with their kind (but not too close) and a desire to
>go somewhere, a V formation is simply a natural mathematical outcome.
>Thus the V formation is not because of any decision (conscience or
>otherwise) of the members to form it. Additionally, trading places
>within the formation is only a function of which direction the
>majority of the flock is flying and who is where within the formation
>-- it's not because of fatigue, or dominance, or any other condition
>that we impose on the rational of other species.
>
>tedd


I think your algorithm is simply a little whacked, and drawing conclusions
from it is a bit of a stretch.  They just clump up and sort of  v-out on
the way to the edge. I will not be awarding you the Nobel Beaks Prize by
any means.

Anybody knows that the most efficent way for a bird to fly in formation is
to coast, after being hit with a nice blast of birdshot.

rc