I've got an initial version of a NetLogo model with cars cruising on a map of Santa Fe, NM. This was done as a proof of concept with summer students working in the RedfishGroup.
Their project included working with the Santa Fe police on understanding the dynamics of cruising around the plaza, a center of Santa Fe activities.
This model is somewhat unusual due to using tiny patches: 2×2 pixels each! Generally the patch size is considerably larger. The challenge was to use a GIS generated map of the downtown area, and to import this into NetLogo so that the patches gave a feel of a map image. This has been pushed to 1 pixel patches with no difficulty other than the time needed to import the image.
The jpg image was processed by converting it into the PPM image (portable pix map) text graphics format, then using the NetLogo rgb primitive to convert that image to a format NetLogo could use. It was then written back out to a data file consisting of only the NetLogo integer color values used by the model's patches.
The final hack was to literally cut & paste the data file into the NetLogo program file (.nlogo file) as an array! This avoided some Java security problems concerning file access that will go away with the current NetLogo beta. But it works so well, we may just keep it for a bit.
Textpattern 1.0rc1: Boy, that was easy! MOTH: My way Or The Highway
