Wave Function Collapse is an algorithm for procedural image generation. In this long overdue follow-up to my tiled model video, I dive into the overlapping model, coding it step by step (complete with struggles and messy debugging interludes) in JavaScript with p5.js.
In Part 1 of this multi-part coding challenge, I introduce the classic computer science problem of the Traveling Salesperson (TSP) and discuss the pitfalls with a brute force solution. In Part 2, I discuss Lexicographic Ordering and demonstrate one algorithm to iterate over all the permutations of an array. In Part 3, I apply this algorithm to a brute-force solution of the TSP problem. Every single route permutation is checked one by one. In Part 4, I attempt to create a solution to the TSP problem with a genetic algorithm, and then I add a “crossover” algorithm in Part 5.