This code sample demonstrates how to generates a set of points that covers a sphere almost evenly, for any number of points. The trick is to use a spiral and the golden angle.
| 42 points | 256 points | 999 points |
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Such points sets are useful for anything that requires sampling a sphere.
| import numpy | |
| def get_spiral_sphere(n): | |
| golden_angle = numpy.pi * (3 - numpy.sqrt(5)) | |
| theta = golden_angle * numpy.arange(n) | |
| z = numpy.linspace(1. - 1. / n, 1. / n - 1., n) | |
| radius = numpy.sqrt(1. - z ** 2) | |
| return numpy.stack([radius * numpy.cos(theta), radius * numpy.sin(theta), z], axis = 1) |