Something’s happening in software. Generative techniques have been around about as long as computers, but from Spore’s game design, soundtrack and creature editors to new music software like Nodal and Noatikl, in 2008 we’re seeing those techniques more accessible than ever. Good news for fans of the demoscene (an underground movement melding coding and art): it’s back with a vengeance, now interconnected with the larger Web and friendlier software-making tools.

It’s only a public alpha, but Toolbox, bargain-priced at 20 Euros (EUR50 when released), suggests what graphics apps might look like with an entirely different metaphor, built on generative lines. The creator describes the tool as a “node-based editor for making digital art,” or a “visual programming language” — the latter something we usually associate exclusively with patching tools like Max/MSP/Jitter and Quartz Composer. The difference here is, whereas those are open-ended software sketchpads, Toolbox is a single-window editor and integrated environment for making visuals, more along the lines of a Photoshop or Illustrator. I’m not suggesting you’ll toss your Creative Suite 3 license out the window, but what this does mean is you could generate an asset from start to finish in this tool — and, perhaps, take it out to another program.

Toolbox App Product Page, Download
Video Album on Vimeo
Flickr Set

The whole project is the work of one developer, Simon Strandgaard. (Remember, too, Quartz Composer began as the project of one Pierre Oliver-Latour.)

What does all this mean? It means you can make UI elements quickly, or destroy existing graphics, and play with vectors in a fluid, magically generative way. The alpha state can make it slow and unpredictable to work with, but it’s already capable of some fun stuff. Here’s a look at vector filtering:

Random vector filter experiments from Simon Strandgaard on Vimeo.

Neon is among the best of a breed of obscure, indie VJ software gems around the world. The creation of mac/xplsv.com and later shine/xplsv.com, it’s made a mark not only as a VJ performance app but as a creator of real-time motion demos. It can event manipulate 3D Studio Max 7 scenes in real-time. All of this goodness could simply die as the developer moves on, but instead shine has decided to open source the code. That gives this Windows-only software a shot at a port to Mac and/or Linux, and turns it into a playground for would-be visual programmers, even if they just want to dabble in filter creation. And it gives the rest of us a lovely tool to add to our toolbox, free.

The feature set is pretty tasty:

• Layered effects: 10 effects layers (called FX instead of layers, oddly), with various blend modes, and a master effects channel - a really nice, practical architecture
• Real-time 3D with 3DS Max support, pixel shaders, vertex shaders (all apparently on DirectX, so some work would be needed for Linux, Mac, and OpenGL)
• Flexible formats: DirectShow, ffmpeg codec support, image support, SWF, live video capture
• Endless filters: Included filters, custom filters using pixel shaders, and a filter SDK with Virtual C++ examples. FreeFrame support, too, though not FFGL (yet) - Resolume has the win for FFGL support so far
• Live control, beat sync: The “beat manager” is the most insane part of this — and why this might find its way into your toolset. You have elaborate control of how things are synced to the beat, with even DJ-style pitch bend controls and per-element sync of parameters in your project. There’s also FFT (sound-reactive input) control, and MIDI.

Programmers can have at the SVN repository right away. Non-programmers get something special for free. I doubt this will shake your loyalty for your existing performance tool of choice, as a visual creation tool you’ll want to check out some of the cool 3D demos done, like this award-winning xplsv.com video, “Sound Pressure.”
(Edit: Auto-playing video moved after the jump - Jaymis)

Peter sums up this piece much better than I can:

this person is
better than us :D
when the revolution comes
and the whole world goes mad max
we’ll be dead
and this person will be hacking the computers to fight the robot army

kindercrasher from Inigo Quilez on Vimeo.

From Inigo:

This is my contribution to the realtime 4 kilobytes visuals (usually known as “4k intro”) competition for Inspire 2008 (held in Spain). It is a set of spheres with radious controlled by the Fourier Transform (without the “fast”) of the music. it contains some realtime ambient occlusion and depth of field. It’s done in C, using shaders (GLSL). Once again, it all fits in a 4 kilobytes executable (music, animation, rendering engine and effects).

Amazing stuff. Check out more information on various deep code and 3D issues at Inigo’s Website, and the rest of his videos on Vimeo. Surprisingly, this won the 4K section of Inspire 2008.